September 11, 2013
I'm up on my soapbox today. What's eating me? Glad you asked. I made the mistake of reading my facebook news feed on a national day of controversy. It's no surprise that the anniversary of 9/11/01 would bring out a lot of comments and opinions from every side of the issue. A series of horrible things took place that morning, while we all witnessed it via live television. I remember exactly what I was doing all day, as my wife and I stayed glued to the tube, wherever we went.
Today I'm ranting about the posting and cutting/pasting of a piece about the Two Million Bikers proposed siege of Washington, DC. It's well publicized that a large group of people riding motorcycles plan to break the law by swarming DC in protest of the legal American Muslim's Against Fear demonstration and speech-fest. The story going around the Internet via facebook and other sites gripes me because it is so flawed. It is biased and decidedly anti-American because it negatively singles out a particular group of people.
Yep. The AMAF received a permit to gather: = legal. Nope. The TMB didn't get a permit: = illegal.
Let's examine that:
The Muslim group applied, in plenty of time, for a permit to gather peacefully, in protest of the strongly negative feelings some Americans harbor against them, as a religious group. Those feelings mainly stem from the actions of a hand full of foreign based terrorists, who attacked the US in 2001.
The Bikers were denied a permit to travel in huge numbers, non-stop through DC, for a few hours, mid-week. The number of police and the logistics of a mid-week parade by protesters, was deemed too costly in both monetary consideration, and disruption of the daily lives of DC citizens and employees.
You say, "but Don, there's millions of Muslims, so why can't two million bikers be accommodated, too?" There's the another problem with the accuracy of the circulating articles. There is actually only a few hundred Muslims expected to show up, and at most about three thousand bikers. Bikers are expected to way surpass the number of people they are protesting.
Here is my response to the anti Muslim article being passed around the Web:
"This
is United States of America, isn't it? Doesn't America stand for freedom? Should we suppress any form of religious freedom? What if masses of joggers turned out in protest of a collection of Christian extremists, on Easter? Let's think about this a bit differently. Probably well over 90% of the Muslims involved are Americans. It wasn't "Muslims", or a religion who did so much damage on 9/11. It was Muslim terrorists. Look what Christian terrorists did in Oklahoma City years ago. The leader of that pack of idiots was even a military veteran. We all revere Vets, don't we? Hey, I'm one of those!
There's a big disconnect, here. Most Americans trust many Muslims every day, and treat them equally. (Look at your doctor, or the family who owns the corner convenience store or motel in your neighborhood.) Why are otherwise good people against them peacefully speaking their minds?
Bottom line: This is an American display of ideology, by Muslim Americans. It is a peaceful gathering to support America, and show that Muslims are regular American people like Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Buddhists, Jews, or any other religious leaning. Like the rest of America, they are black, white, Asian, and other racial origins. The "Bikers" also have a right to state their case. Only, let's not let that be based on the religion or cultural origin of the Muslims who are making their statement.
There won't be any more than a couple thousand (three thousand, tops) riders there, anyway, so why not let 'em roll through DC?
Two more thoughts: 1.) I ride a motorcycle, but my creed is,"live and let live". (Today's "bikers" don't want to be considered bad people, or "Hell's Angels" types, just because they ride, do they?) 2.) No Muslim ever woke me up 2 or 3 times nightly, accelerating his muffler-less Hog past my house between the hours of 1 & 6 AM. Unless, of course, he was a rare "Muslim Biker"! I dout the "late night noise terrorists" are even real bikers. If they were, they'd respect the sleeping public and spring for mufflers."
