This is directed at all the people who claim they are all for the First Amendment rights of the Muslims who want to construct a Mosque at the 9/11 site but insist it's an "Insult" to build it there, a "stab in the heart" as Sarah Palin puts it, for the millions who have intense feelings about the September 11th attacks. More than one politician cries out that the proposed Islamic center would violate "sacred ground".
Question: What do you think about the plans of Glenn Beck to hold a "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial? Did I mention it is scheduled 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" rally on the very same spot?
To millions, that location on that date is also "Sacred aground", which will be defiled by Beck and his followers.
Glenn Beck, as we all are painfully aware is wildly popular with millions who are attracted to his rants about, among other things, race. Unfortunately his tirades are also seen by non-followers as insensitive to say the least. His attacks on "social justice" and "economic justice" and his description of President Obama as a man with a "deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture" are regarded by some as more than a few as code words for white supremacists.
Beck contends this is merely his attempt to reinvigorate Dr. King's call to simply "judge a man by the content of his character". Surely, however, he must realizes some would regard that particular choice of words as a taunt, even a blasphemy.
And guess who will speak at this rally. You got it: the Grizzly Mamma herself, Sarah Palin, who apparently feels it OK to make a heart-stabbing speech, as long as she's plunging the knife into those who aren't among her adoring followers.
To be scrupulously fair, Beck did pay lip service to the religious freedom argument in favor of the lower Manhattan mosque, but he hastened to add he was "offended".
Apparently like his soul-mate Fox commentator Palin, offense in the name of self-serving hate mongering is no vice. That's not exactly how Barry Goldwater put it, but some conservatives have come a long way since Goldwater: backwards.
So the next time your blood starts to boil over about the mosque plans, try and ponder how the Glenn rally will insult so many who revere the struggle over civil rights. Let's bring up the same question you do: Even though you have the constitutional right to be there, should you be?
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"Bottom line is that Beck has a permit dilema. The Parks Service probably wants to give him the kind of permit they customarily issue for political events...as opposed to a purely entertainment event, for which another kind of permit is issued. If Beck accepts the permit for a political rally he jeopardizes the tax exempt status of Special Operations Warrior Foundation. That's the reason for the bogus disclaimers that the rally is "non-political" and "non-partisan"."
I will accept Beck's word that he wasn't aware when he scheduled it that it was on that anniversary. I will stand by his right to conclude that it was an inspired coincidence. I will stand by his right to say that he is using it as some sort of "bridge".
Since he is likely to stand his ground here, I will be uncomfortable in future if he says others should change their plans when someone expresses outrage and angst. He should not mock anyone else saying they are trying to build a bridge, without consideration of the feelings of the people on the other side of the supposed bridge.