Back for the burning

Okay, fine. Vacation, slump, or whatever you may want to call it is over. Patriot X is posting again.

It seems that a Florida minister's idea to host a "burn the Koran Day", is attracting some intense scrutiny and criticism. General Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and even the Vatican are trying to use this pastor's crazy idea to paint themselves as enlightened moderates. To be fair, at first glance, this is a bad idea. It causes some theological dissonance even in those that aren't religious, and it attracted my attention as well... but, for the most politically incorrect reasons.

Please hear me on this, I think this guy is wrong. However, his constitutional right to burn a Koran, a flag, a cross, a Bible, or an image is protected in some part by me - and hopefully, by all of us. I think the talking heads in our culture are missing the point on this one. Sure, this is in bad taste. It is disrespectful, provocative, and mean-spirited, but geez people, doesn't that describe the behavior of a whole lot of Americans? This guy is not going to torch a mosque or attack a place of worship. He is not calling for violence against Muslims. (No, liberal over-reachers, he is not). He is calling for the public destruction of a written text that is holy to many people. Unfortunately, most Americans have been bullied into thinking that we have to play by the rules of Islam, but wait... no one has to play be the rules of America, or even worse, Christianity. They can build a mosque here with foreign money, but we could not build a church or a temple in the middle east. They can burn Bibles and pictures of our leaders, but if we razz them at all, they threaten us with death and dismemberment. Hmmmm. Maybe we should be defending Rev. Jones instead of those threatening to kill him and increase attacks on our troops because he is exercising his rights to free speech. Here is a statement I would like to see from our government officials:

"Recently, rumors of an American citizen planning to burn the Koran, have elicited great concern. Our Constitution protects speech such as this. While most Americans disagree with the actions described, it is necessary to avoid the impulse to sublimate our own liberty in order to avoid offending those who threaten violence in order to silence opposition. Those that would suggest that this man's actions are reason enough to launch attacks on our troops or even attack Americans on U.S. soil are unequivocally the enemies of our nation. They are enemies of freedom, and they would not hesitate to dismantle every other right found in our exemplary constitution in order to elevate the laws of Islam in place of our laws. I ask all Americans to join together and do the right thing, but above all, be ready to defend each other's right to speak or demonstrate their beliefs, for if we do not we squander the expensive gift of liberty."

Imagine if some pastor in the 1930's had said, "Germans are pigs." I doubt our government officials would be throwing themselves in the direction of any available microphone to mitigate the offense that the Nazi's might find in this statement. No, for better or worse, Britney Spears or Terry Jones, Americans can say what they want and should expect to find the rest of us ready to defend their right to do it.

Thoughts?