Isn't This Fun, This Stuff Of Hate?

I realise that the first rule of writing is to make sure your readers are informed of all the characters and extenuating circumstances. But I'm going to break that rule and assume that you have either already figured out what happened over the last two days or are capable of using Google. I have less than no desire to rehash it all here. (Key search terms: "Bill Hobbs", Mohammed, Cartoon)

Characters throughout the Nashosphere spent much of Friday morning bewildered and sympathetic to Hobbs on a micro level. But now he has become a sort of heroic totem for much of the conservative world. People from all around the country are stopping by Blake Wylie's comments section to leave strange jingoistic couplets in "support" of Mr. Hobbs' right to draw pictures of whatever he wants. Presumably his admittedly-in-poor-taste drawing is in itself okay because "liberals and muslims are scum and must be killed."

That type of idiocy is easily dismissed because it is, on its face, ridiculous. But others appear to be using bigger words which more prettily say the same thing. Terry Frank politely opines:

The Nasvhille Scene “pile on” is just another example of how David Horowitz is right–namely that an “unholy alliance” exists between the liberals in this country & our media and the radical Muslims who seek to wipe Israel, infidels, and the West off the face of the map.

Think about that for a minute. Think about what it says.

I'm a conservative Christian. Frank's statement bothers me even more than the tasteless cartoon and the graceless opinion piece in the Scene. It bothers me because it uses a complicated factual event to draw a spurious conclusion. I know a lot of liberals. Many are members of my own family. While I think that there are many times when my brother Tom has ended up on the wrong side of an issue or that my Aunt C-------- has missed a few buttons on the overcoat I still rest comfortably knowing that neither of them have "Go Jihad!" sentiments OR matching t-shirts.

The plain fact is that there are people in the world who would like to see me dead. And you. Because we live in America. Because we are Christian or pagan or agnostic. Because I am a woman. Because the men around here don't keep me quiet. (Good luck with that, Honey....)

The other plain fact is that there are a lot of people in this country who disagree with me about how we should handle everything from the Iraq war to the Food Stamp program. I think they're wrong. They think I'm wrong. But last time I looked, the central aim of this country is freedom. We should have the right to disagree. Statements like Frank's do nothing to "promote the general welfare" OR "ensure domestic tranquility." We seem to have forgotten, in our rush to provide for the common (i.e. all of us) defense, that one can hold an opposing political position and yet NOT be a danger to our basic wellbeing. Sure, there may be SOME journalists who are very anti-Israel or even pro-Iraqi. That doesn't mean every person who holds a "media" card is fomenting destruction. And I'm sure (because I've met one or two) that there are liberals who would love to see the U.S. turned into an irradiated glass memory as punishment for having more money than everybody else. That doesn't mean that every non-conservative has joined up with the enemy.

Are we so eager to fight that we'll create enemies where none exist? Or is the true enemy so fearsome that it's easier to fight a figment? I wish I knew.