First in a series
Re “Do Not Forget to Arm Yourself”
When I dialed City Councilperson Megan Sahli-Wells early yesterday morning to x-ray the meeting on Parcel B the night before, the surprise was on me.
Typically forthright and eloquent, her opening was hesitant, tentative.
“I have something uncomfortable to talk to you about,” she said. “Are you ready?”
Yes.
“I wanted to talk to you about an article you wrote (see above). You wrote it awhile ago. It just came to my attention. And, and I was very upset reading it, talking about Muslims.”
(The Dec. 10 essay, “Do Not Forget to Arm Yourself,” contended that liberals, in their unending search for, and creation of, victims, have made presumably non-terrorist Muslims their current cause celebre. USA Today suggested non-Muslims should visit their neighborhood mosques and embrace the Muslims within. I advised such visitors to arm themselves.)
“‘Packing a Sidearm,’” Ms. Sahli-Wells said, “was very hard to read.”
I understood her reaction and why she responded as she did. It was written in the elementary spirit that virtually all terrorists are Muslims but not all Muslims are terrorists.
Ms. Sahli-Wells: “I don’t remember you saying that.”
I didn’t. It is self-evident. Meanwhile, the radical Islamist terror rampage has been flipped on its head. The left has turned Muslims into innocent victims, grandly ignoring the global mass of Muslim terrorists. The popular new media-spawned concept is that most Muslims are saints or victims of hate crimes.
Ms. Sahli-Wells disagreed with the premise about liberals. “I really don’t feel that way,” she said.
I understand. Many people agree with you.
“On the other hand,” she said,
“I went to a gathering at the (King Fahad) mosque last week. What was happening was that Muslim kids were being bullied at schools since (Republican) presidential candidates are spreading hate and asking that the country discriminate against an entire religion. It is incredibly troubling.
“The fact that these kinds of sentiments are sanctioned by so many people is creating a climate of a lot of fear, a lot of hatred and, frankly, a lot of violence toward Muslims.
“When I read your article, it fed into that violence. It was directed toward my constituents. It made me very uncomfortable.
“I wonder if you would be willing to take it down?”
No, in the battered name of free speech.
(To be continued)
Dear Editor,
Just a reminder to some people of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America! I read your opinions, agree with some and disagree with others, that is the beauty of our United States Constitution and traditions. I for one appreciate you integrity in not taking down your opinion whatever it is on this website.
Bill of Rights
1Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Free speech – yeah I can dig that.
Hate speech – not so much.
Ari you can spout your ‘Tiny Trump’ nonsense till you’re blue in the face.
But stop pretending that this ‘rag’ is a news source.
And it behooves us normal folk to challenge all candidates for Council and beyond to stop allowing themselves to be ‘interviewed’ by you.
I will admit however, that on occasion I do read your ‘purple prose’ out loud to my children just to help them avoid the more common pitfalls of bad writing.
So I thank you for that.