DEFENDING OUR FREEDOM

A Mosque at Ground Zero

I'm embarrassed to live in a country where people attack a president for defending the First Amendment. Oh wait, did I misspeak? Because that's what happened last week when President Obama vigorously supported the right of Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

Did Muslims fly planes into the World Trade Center causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people? It depends on the what the definition of a Muslim is. As in most faiths, the Koran preaches non-violence unless violence is trespassed against you (in so many words) and the misogynist, Stone Age, anti-Western violence preached by al-Qaeda has as much to do with real Islam as polygamy does with modern day Mormons or Mater Dei does with the vast majority of Catholics. But even so, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects our freedom to worship--and doesn't make any exceptions for excluding that freedom from certain areas if it makes people uncomfortable.

This is typical of the kind of non-issue that propels so much of our political discourse today. If you want to rip President Obama for bogging us down in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan, feel free to do so. If you want to attack his health care plan as riddled with hidden costs and not nearly far reaching enough, there are points to be made there too. But don't attack the President when he is doing his job. That's just base politics with no rhyme or reason.

Peace...