9/11 thoughts
On this anniversary of one of our darkest days in recent memory, I've been thinking.
How brave are you?
Really? Let's see.
Take a look around you.
I dare you. I double-dare you.
How many of the people around you can't see the good sense of your political views? How many can't see the completely obvious indicators of the right choices to make?
How many of your neighbors claim to follow the same religious beliefs you do, but you know their morals are not the same as yours?
And let's be honest, how many of us set aside even the highest commands of our faith when they become inconvenient? A large percentage of this country is outwardly Judeo-Christian, yet we still have theft, murder, adultery, and more, don't we? How easily we set aside those pesky Commandments...
We overflow our own prisons with people who've done these things and more, yet we never consider that they represent all Americans, or all Jews, or all Christians.
So why do we assume that anyone who is Muslim, or even just from the Middle East, must also be a terrorist, or at least that they must support what the terrorists have been doing?
That is lazy thinking, and shows a lack of courage to challenge our own preconceptions.
So now for the real test.
Do you have the courage to see people as something other than a label, something other than a set of uninformed assumptions?
Or will you be one of those too lazy to think for themselves? Or one of those too cowardly to even honestly consider the possibility that you're letting a blind prejudice do your thinking for you?
If you're reading this and you fall into either of those two categories, then I've sadly misjudged you.
And if I'm right, then I'm not the only one who would be disappointed to hear that answer. Who else?
The person who lives in your mirror.
So? Which are you? A person with integrity who thinks for themselves?
Or a lazy coward who automatically dismisses my troubling questions because I'm a _____ and not a _____?
How brave are you?
Really? Let's see.
Take a look around you.
I dare you. I double-dare you.
How many of the people around you can't see the good sense of your political views? How many can't see the completely obvious indicators of the right choices to make?
How many of your neighbors claim to follow the same religious beliefs you do, but you know their morals are not the same as yours?
And let's be honest, how many of us set aside even the highest commands of our faith when they become inconvenient? A large percentage of this country is outwardly Judeo-Christian, yet we still have theft, murder, adultery, and more, don't we? How easily we set aside those pesky Commandments...
We overflow our own prisons with people who've done these things and more, yet we never consider that they represent all Americans, or all Jews, or all Christians.
So why do we assume that anyone who is Muslim, or even just from the Middle East, must also be a terrorist, or at least that they must support what the terrorists have been doing?
That is lazy thinking, and shows a lack of courage to challenge our own preconceptions.
So now for the real test.
Do you have the courage to see people as something other than a label, something other than a set of uninformed assumptions?
Or will you be one of those too lazy to think for themselves? Or one of those too cowardly to even honestly consider the possibility that you're letting a blind prejudice do your thinking for you?
If you're reading this and you fall into either of those two categories, then I've sadly misjudged you.
And if I'm right, then I'm not the only one who would be disappointed to hear that answer. Who else?
The person who lives in your mirror.
So? Which are you? A person with integrity who thinks for themselves?
Or a lazy coward who automatically dismisses my troubling questions because I'm a _____ and not a _____?