Yesterday a friend of mine, "Eric," sent something out that I know he thought was funny. He often sends humorous posts on and I read them when I need something funny to brighten my day. I didn't read this one though, I was too busy and it went to his folder.
This morning I logged in to find an email is response to an email my friend had sent out. It seems my friend didn't keep the receipts email all in BCC. I wish he had.
"Biff" was on the CC list and decided to hit "reply all" in response to Eric's not really funny email (that had nothing to do with the Park51 Community Center/Cordoba/Ground Zero Mosque). It went to 20 additional people besides me and is as follows:
Wow funny stuff! Thanks for sharing! It would be so much funnier if Obama/Barry Soetoro were not a Muslim!
Um, hello! A birth certificate replacement is available in the state of Hawaii for $12.50!
British Petroleum has given him millions! Ummmm,...like does he need to borrow $12.50, I will loan it to him!
Yes they, the winners/muslims are building a war memorial/Mosque at ground zero in NYC, member 9-11!
(and a link to this video rant)
I have been on a simmering boil about this for days. This was the first email I had received like this. But a few nights ago I stayed up with a friend on Facebook who had had "friends" post anti-Muslim crap that she saw on her side, and I was helping her to calm down.
"If I left this crap stand, unanswered, what does it say about me?" I thought.
So I took a breath, made sure to check my anger at the door and hit "reply all:"
Why would you send this to everyone? Especially when you don't know who or what they are, and specifically that they may not agree with you.
The mosque is NOT on ground zero, it's 2 long NYC blocks away. Or are you saying the whole of NYC is Ground Zero? Are you saying the owner of private property doesn't have the right to build what he wants? I guess then you are incensed by the strip club that is directly across the street from ground zero. There were MUSLIM American victims of the terrorists inside the WTC. The first child to be born after 9-11 that had a parent die at the hands of the terrorists who was working inside the WTC at the time was/is MUSLIM.
The Pentagon has a mosque inside it, not more than 1,000 feet from where it was hit. Are you outraged at that? There is another mosque 4 blocks away from ground zero, it is so small that it is bursting at the seams by all the Muslims who work in the area coming to pray. Are you outraged that it is there?
The Imam who is heading the mosque (which is actually a community center with the top two floors being prayer rooms) was sent by President Bush to represent America to Muslims in the middle east. The "mosque" board has Christians and Jews on it. How many churches or synagogues can say that?
The Imam himself was actually asked to speak as the memorial service of Daniel Pearl (the journalist who was murdered in Pakistan). Here is a link to the full text of what he said(pdf). Here is whatJeffery Goldberg pointed out:
There are those who would argue that these represent mere words, chosen carefully to appease a postentially suspicious audience. I would argue something different: That any Muslim imam who stands before a Jewish congregation and says, "I am a Jew," is placing his life in danger. Remember, Islamists hate the people they consider apostates even more than they hate Christians and Jews. In other words, the man many commentators on the right assert is a terrorist-sympathizer placed himself in mortal peril in order to identify himself with Christians and Jews, and specifically with the most famous Jewish victim of Islamism.
Al-Qeada, and Bin Laden himself, like to say that in the face of terror America will not live up to it's principles. It will abandon them. It is an argument they use to recruit Muslims. With this debate America is handing Bin Laden a huge recruitment tool. Is that what you want? The Constitution isn't just our law in good times, it's our law when it is most hard to do. That is what has made us a shining light, a country of laws and not of men who will abrogate those laws in the heat of emotion.
Charelton Heston said it best when he spoke at the NRA convention, held in Denver not even a year after Coiumbine (1999) - when protesters demanded the NRA move or cancel their convention:
"Tragedy has been, and will always be, with us. Somewhere right now, evil people are planning evil things. All of us will do everything meaningful, everything we can do to prevent it. But each horrible act can't become an axe for opportunists to cleave the very Bill of Rights that binds us."
"America must stop this predictable pattern of reaction. When an isolated, terrible event occurs, our phones ring demanding that the NRA explain the inexplicable. Why us? Because their story needs a villain. ... That is not our role in American society, and we will not be forced to play it. ... If you disagree, that's your right. I respect that. But we will not relinquish it, or be silenced about it, or be told, "Do not come here. You are unwelcome in your own land."
Some how I think that the man who was at first one of the few whites walking with MLK for civil rights, would also be demanding that 1st Amendment rights be respected as well as 2nd Amendment rights. He always seemed to be on the side not of what was popular but what was right.
The community center is also hoped to bring some economic redevelopment to an area that has many, many shuttered stores. Those who will take advantage of the services of the community center (like the planned cooking class) are more likely to stay in the area to eat, buy clothes, food etc. This seems to be the only viable plan to bring commerce back to the area.
Lastly, I will remind you that I did not seek you out, you chose to hit reply all - and I did in response so that another voice could be heard.
Have a good day
Before I got this email out he sent two more. I sent an email to himm, cced to Eric, asking him to stop hitting "reply all" as I didn't wish to receive any more.
Eric emailed me an apology, which I have accepted.
Biff then sent this:
(the email began with this link to this video)
It is ok for you though. right? Are you special, like the annointed one, our saviour, the Messia?
And God help me I couldn't resist replying :
Wow you're right, your 3 to my 1 in response to the first one.
Maybe you should read the last line of the response email again.
His response came almost half an hour later. It is actually funny, in a sad, deranged sort of way. He's gone all FEMAR on me and now I am apparently with "Barry" and Satan - well at least with Obama I'm in good company.
God is on my side Sheople! You and Barry Soetoro, are with Satan! Why don't you just Google Obama and Population reduction to see what he thinks of you! You may even want to Google Obama and Hypnotism to see why you are so blind to his evil! Better yet go to youtube and search FEMA COFFINS to see what your beloved leader has planned for you! Millions of coffins, some stacked ten miles long, and mass graves are ready to dispose of your body, all over the country sweetie! You need to start thanking me dumb-ass! We all need to know this turd brain!
DID YOU KNOW THE ATTACK ON THE HORIZON STARTED ON 4/20 earth day! Yes and it was 4/21 in ENGLAND- THE QUEENS BIRTHDAY! Do you get the meaning of that!!!!!!!
This is where it ends. I will not debate crazy people and I will not respond unless he continues to email me. Then it will be to ask him to stop and if he doesn't, a note to his ISP will do the trick. I'm sure at that point he will, if he runs true to form, go all Palin/Schlesinger/Taitz on me and declare I'm abridging his 1st Amendment rights.
Still, for those 20 other people, I am not sorry I responded to Biff's "Reply All."
.
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*****
Update: Biff has actually sent me more replies now. I did send the email asking him to stop. And have done what Davewill suggested, he's now in my spam box.
Update #2: I guess my spam filer doesn't work because another one of his emails just got through.