stop the hate

A week or so ago, Kevin Drum asked Is Everybody Nuts?. I'm wondering the same thing myself. First we have the Kentucky GOP planning to challenge voters in African-American districts whether they're in fact eligible to vote. Then we have Trent Lott (who is apparently nostalgic for the days when the Kentucky GOP's behavior was the rule across the South) suggesting that the U.S. ought to just mow down Iraqis in order to stop the guerrilla attacks against U.S. troops. And now we have Stanley Crouch publishing a column that he apparently stole from LGF or the Freepers, so vile is the anti-Muslim bigotry in it. I am sick and tired of all this bigotry, intolerance, and hatred. And I am also sick and tired of people who shrug it off (though they would be outraged if the same comments were made about some other group, such as Jews) or who excuse it by saying, in effect, "we're not as bad as" or "we're no worse than" the other side (especially when these people consider the "other side" to be savages). As if that makes it OK. WRONG!!! What has made America great is the ideals we stand for and the principles we uphold. If today our claim to fame is that we're "not as bad as the Arabs/Muslims" (which, again, these people consider to be savages), we've come to a sorry state indeed and lost something precious.