Why the Left is Different from the Right and why they want to stay that way.
Not all on the Right are bigoted, and not all on the Left are NOT bigoted.
However, when Bush lied this country into war in Iraq it unleased all the bigots who up to then, had to be a bit more careful than in previous times, about being openly displaying their bigotry.
9/11 happened and they got permission to return to the old days, where it was okay to launch disgusting, bigoted verbal, and as everyone surely remembers, even physical attacks at the latest 'other' group, who had tried to 'take away our freedoms'.
You couldn't go anywhere online, or to the Right Wing Noise Machine without seeing such disgusting epithets as 'camel jockeys' and 'ragheads' and much, much worse.
Even our Military Generals got in on the act: 'Treat the Iraqis like dogs'!
MUSLIMS! We had a new word for the old bigotry and every 'Patriot' joined in the action, just like old times again for them.
If ever there was a time I felt grateful to be on the Left, it was during the beginning of this ugly period.
The Left otoh, refused to broad brush an entire group of people because of the actions of a few.
Which to the mindless haters translated to 'the Left are not Patriots!' They were Saddam Lovers, traitors, singing 'Kumbaya with Terrorists'!
The War Machine was fueled by this rabid Nationalism and Muslim Americans were often the target of violence and anger.
Mindless, dangerous bigotry.
Challenges were issued to Muslims: 'Why don't you come out and CONDEMN these terrorists'? I noticed some Muslim owned businesses in our area putting up American flags, trying to show 'we are not the enemy' but irrational hatred doesn't deal in facts.
And near where I lived an Indian family who had owned a Convenience store for decades, known and respected in the area, their children born and raised as Americans, were attacked one day by mindless, ignorant bigots who couldn't tell the difference between an Iraqi and a native of India. It doesn't matter to them, they were not white and they 'all look the same' anyhow'.
I was proud of the people in our area that day. They came to the defense of that family, they held the perps until the police came. The father had tears in his eyes, thanking everyone for standing up for him, for something no one should have had to do if the bigotry had not been fueled by, at that time, mostly the Right.
I am proud to be on the Left right now. I am seeing the same thing happening again. The same arguments against the Left, who apparently should not allow the Right to maintain their role of bigoted, blind blame of an entire group of people for the actions of a few.
We are supposed to jump on that far right wagon, so we can 'win', what exactly?
Murderous fanatics committed a terrible crime, another one, in France. THEY are to blame for that.
I have zero interest in competing with the Right for just about ANYTHING frankly.
I'm more than happy to allow them to 'win' this war game where in order to keep it going, we must have an enemy.
This is the kind of human being I identify with:
Rais Bhuiyan after he was shot in the face on Sept. 21, 2001.
Just 10 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan was working at a gas station in Dallas when he was shot in the face by a man named Mark Stroman.
Stroman was on a shooting spree, targeting people who appeared to be Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent. Stroman is due to be executed July 20; Bhuiyan, the only survivor of the attacks, is fighting to save his life.
He wen through years of surgeries and his family, who were in Bangladesh, suffered more tragedy when his dad had a stroke upon hearing the news of his son's shooting.
The perpetrator of the hate crime, (are we all responsible for his crimes btw?) ended up on death row for HIS crimes.
However, Rais Bhuiyan worked with the defense to try to stop the execution.
"According to my faith in Islam, there is no hate, no killing. It doesn't allow anything like that," says Bhuiyan. "Yes, Mark Stroman did a horrible thing, and he brought a lot of pain and disaster, sufferings in my life. But in return I never hated him."
Bhuiyan has created a website called World Without Hate to educate others about hate crimes as a means of preventing them. He's also working with Amnesty International and Stroman's defense attorney, who has filed several appeals on Stroman's death sentence.
"I strongly believe executing him is not a solution. We will just simply lose a human life without dealing with the root cause, which is hate crime," Bhuiyan says. "In Islam it says that saving one human life is the same as saving the entire mankind. Since I forgave him, all those principles encouraged me to go even further, and stop his execution and save another human life."
Revenge and hatred simply continue the vicious cycle we are now in.
I have zero interest or intention of competing with bigots to show how 'patriotic' I am.
I would much rather compete with Rais, though I'm not sure about winning that contest either. However, people like this are who I look to for inspiration to become a better a human being.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Well said.
to me. And the Left needs to get really tough on these people. I have no problem with that. That kind of bigotry needs a clear and unapologetic, extremely strong response from the Left. No matter what names they pull out of their bag of talking points. We have to get over the 'what will the Right say' nonsense. Of all the people in the world whose opinions should matter least to us, they are the ones that come to mind.
The Left operates on the defensive. Not everyone, but there seems to be fear of upsetting them. I could not care less about upsetting people who need to be upset. 
