COEXIST

2 January 2010

I remember the first time I saw the bumper sticker with the word ‘Coexist’ made up with symbols of different religions, and I must admit that I thought it relatively clever in its design. Subsequently I saw the same sticker combined with other politically inferring ones like ‘War is not the answer’ and ‘Impeach Bush’ and similar in nature. I so realized what the real message that the sticker was designed to give.
I started to think about the whole ‘coexist’ issue a little more deeply, as, in the general context of the message the owner was sending, it appeared to be taking a more admonishing tone. In other words, it started to send me the message that America needs to look at its religious tolerance. And to me that bumper sticker became offensive.

As I pondered on the reason why the message was offensive, I looked at America and its historical ability to tolerate. The picture became clear for me about the utter nonsense of the admonition being presented, as from a religious point of view, there is really no other country in the world that gives as much freedom of worship as America.
To convince me of my belief I just looked at two specific cases: Islam and the Westboro Baptist Church.

In accordance with the U.S. Constitution, Muslims have been protected in the profession of their faith without any interference from the government or the people. Even after followers of the ‘religion of peace’ attacked and killed scores of American citizens all over the world, guilty only of being Americans, and after Allah’s fervent followers commandeered aircrafts and turned them into flying missiles and killed almost 3,000 innocent people, guilty only of living and making a living in America, no state mandated backlash ever came upon the other followers of Islam in our country. Instead, the US Government went to great extents to send the message out to the American people that any popular singling out of Muslim for revenge was not going to be tolerated. And the American people, regardless of Governmental guidelines, did not launch themselves into a Muslim hunt in pursuit of a vendetta.
Can anyone believe that similar tolerance would be observed in a Muslim country?

Than there is the WBC in Kansas, the sect of misguided pseudo-Christians who are convinced that God is mad at America because of the permissive attitude of the country toward homosexuality. This cult-like group is very small, mostly composed of members of one Rev. Phelps family. In itself the impact of such a repulsive interpretation of the significance of Jesus Christ would be just looked at as not more than on offensive footnote to the meaning of extremism. The problem with WBC is that they chose to bring up their theological-political views at funerals of Military members.
In an effort of having a greater impact than deserved, members of this “church” show up with signs saying things like “thank god for IEDs” or “God loves dead soldiers” and similar vile posters and seek to make sure the grieving families get a full view of their “points of view”.
The only good result of the actions of the WBC is that they inspired the American Legion Riders to form a group called Patriot Guard Riders, who form a wall of patriots and American flags in front of the protesters shielding the families from those despicable people.
As a member of the Patriot Guards, I can personally vouch for the restrain the members of the group have to call upon to avoid bashing some heads in, but the point is that even such vile behavior is at least tolerated by the American population en large.

It then becomes very annoying that some people feel that they need to exhort others of something that is already part of American culture. If the intention of the bumper sticker owner is to state that we should all get along, that we should talk about our differences with other people in the world, if their message is that they are more tolerant than the average American and that the American people actions are really to be blamed for the hatred of some groups, I would offer them the invitation of putting into practice their professed knowledge about what our enemies’ gripe is. In other words, if you believe you have the right to admonish me to COEXIST with Islamic terrorists, than I would like by all means to see you travel to the remote areas of Waziristan and work things out with Osama bin Laden. I am all for it and the sons and daughters of America would not have to risk their lives in Afghanistan or Iraq. It sure looks easy for you to make such statement from the comfort of your little life, comfort insured by the blood and sacrifice of our Military!

It is enormously annoying and old now, to have such people putting themselves on some sort of tolerance pedestal, when tolerance is part of American everyday life. Reaffirming it is the disparate ethnic and religious backgrounds we are exposed to every day, from the work environment to the sport world to the entertainment arena.
Has intolerance been eliminated? Of course not, but it not institutionalized as it is in the majority of the rest of the world. It is an isolated scourge that will take generations to wipe off, but nowhere more than in the United States coexistence has been professed and adhered to. It is mandated by our Constitution.

I am afraid that many in America have confused the idea of Coexistence with Minority Rule. America’s obligation is to insure that every person legally living within its borders is afforded the same opportunities to succeed, socially and financially. The cancer of Political Correctness has been attacking this principle for years, allowing certain minorities, being ethnic or religious or social, to interfere with the interests of the country as a whole.
From Separation of Church and State to the Second Amendment, the rights of the majority of the country have been under attack, and in many cases trampled, by minority actions under the umbrella of being offended. And Liberals, who in my own personal experience are less tolerant than Conservatives, have made a career from exploiting the issue. Nowhere in the United States Constitution says that the government must protect the individual from being offended.
I, for example, find very offensive the detachment that many Americans have with the Military and its sacrifice. Should I file a law suit to impose that every household display pro-Military signs on their homes? Or sue so to have the government mandate that Old Glory be displayed on certain days of the year? You would say it would be ridiculous and you would be correct. But at the same time, someone may find my display of the American flag on my home “offensive” and file a law suit that would probably find a Liberal judge willing to pursue.

So, my dear Liberal friends, I and the majority of America, do not need to be admonished to COEXIST, after all we do that with you every day.

And these are my thoughts!
Frank “Semperpapa”