I hope that we have learned from history. The McCarthy Era was not a pretty one.There is a strange on-line community of people creating glitzy .PPS, and .PPTs, that create misinformation. These ridiculous things are being sent around as friends warn friends.
For example:
TheCanvasPrison.pps
Historically, it is the proper garment of the Pashtun tribes who are great believers and supporters of the burka. ...
In the days of tribes, and warring societies, wearing a burka was protection. The rich and powerful in Muslim countries do not wear veils. They are protected in other ways.
This .PPT worries that immigrants will enforce their cultural beliefs (that women, for example should wear veils) on the whole of North America. Surely, the right of a woman to cover herself up, as per her cultural beliefs, does not violate my right not to do so. This seems to be the same right wing folks who feared that gay marriage would destroy the family.
This actions seems to run along the lines of the fear of someone who is different. I've been reading the history books written about my new county, and finding the same fear and/or intolerance for the Aboriginal Peoples who lived here prior to Scottish and Irish settlers. There are many stories of Native People looking after settlers. My grandmother told one about her mother being lost in the woods, with the local natives returning her to her parents.
These days, I visit Arts Shows and see a fine example of people who have learned to live and work with one another, finally. The Scarlett Maple Tour, in which people opened their doors. The Perth Studio Tour.
Have those in the US not learned from past mistakes?
In the days of tribes, and warring societies, wearing a burka was protection. The rich and powerful in Muslim countries do not wear veils. They are protected in other ways. This .PPT worries that immigrants will enforce their cultural beliefs (that women, for example should wear veils) on the whole of North America. Surely, the right of a woman to cover herself up, as per her cultural beliefs, does not violate my right not to do so. This seems to be the same right wing folks who feared that gay marriage would destroy the family.
This actions seems to run along the lines of the fear of someone who is different. I've been reading the history books written about my new county, and finding the same fear and/or intolerance for the Aboriginal Peoples who lived here prior to Scottish and Irish settlers. There are many stories of Native People looking after settlers. My grandmother told one about her mother being lost in the woods, with the local natives returning her to her parents.
These days, I visit Arts Shows and see a fine example of people who have learned to live and work with one another, finally. The Scarlett Maple Tour, in which people opened their doors. The Perth Studio Tour.
Have those in the US not learned from past mistakes?
Also, threats of violence...
Judging by this website: www.fourwinds10.com/, they are right wing, anticommunists, who fearmonger and cannot accept the nations that share their continent (i.e., Mexico, Canada) let alone the Global Community.
In North America we have freedom to dress as we please. No one is going to force anyone to wear a burka.
When I entered high school, in the 70s, it was the first year that girls could wear pants to school, as opposed to dresses. But then, those miniskirts were quite the thing.
In fact, President Obama was interviewed by MTV this past week, and faced a group of young people, some brave souls twittering and name-calling, afraid he is leading them into Communism.
Obama: America's Communist President
5 Nov 2008 ... America has once again been given the president it deserves... a Marxist/Communist! Barack Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing,
Obama: America's Communist President
5 Nov 2008 ... America has once again been given the president it deserves... a Marxist/Communist! Barack Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing,
President Obama responds to...
Obama On Being Labeled A "Communist": "We've Got To Stop The Name Calling"(video)
One student had twittered to the MTV host that their greatest fear: that President Obama is turning the US into a communist country. What a crock.
He said that with current social media, which is very powerful, we must watch that we do not end the dialogue, rather than simply resorting to name calling. The Christian Fundamentalists in the US are very powerful.
What are they thinking? I suppose they are not. North Americans have freedom to speak out. In a communist nation we could not.
This is what stopped the Vietnam War. People standing up together.
Health care, and ensuring an education for its people, does not equal communism.
If you read the truth about Marx and Lenin, you can read of the blood baths that occurred as they sought to keep their power and feared the people. People who fear their leaders leads to trouble.
How sad to fear that ensuring access to health care for all = communism! Just ask those of us who live in Canada, or the UK, with universal health care. What happened to the universal ethic of reciprocity, 'Treat others as you would be treated!"
This means that those to whom much is given, much is required.
They survive on ignorance. Just as the powerful Catholic church survived by telling church goers what to think, educating them in rhetoric, teaching by rote, rather than allowing them to read their bibles themselves, in their own language.
Forego spreading rumours and bull. Refrain from that 'forward' button. Do some research first.
4 comments:
ARGH.
I couldn't agree more! It just amazes me that there's still this kind of prejudice and intolerance in the United States. Actually, if you think about it, it's ignorance...willful ignorance. And that's really sad.
Jenn -- I just wholesale delete any forwards I get. I have tried to respond to those who believe this kind of c@$%p and it's hopeless to try to persuade them. I just don't get what people are so afraid of. It's pitiful.
Its astonishing to me the animosity toward Obama and the lies people tell each other about him. I don't hesitate to call people on their lies and provide links and information and they get very hostile toward me.
I fear where we in the USA are going. I have a feeling things could get a lot worse.
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