Thank you KO...you nailed it!
Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" tonight is about the whole Islamic Mosque controversy.
For those of you who thought you had all the facts, I urge you to watch this portion of the program linked below the fold. For those of you who thought you already "knew" all the facts, I again urge you to watch the video posted below, because I can assure you, that you've never heard it laid out so perfectly as KO did tonight.
Once again, Keith Olbermann did himself proud and more importantly, we should all be proud and honored to have an actual journalist who plays it as it lays. Such a rarity in television "news" today!
Who can ever forget these words uttered by the Reverend Martin Niemöller :
"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."
Martin Niemöller was a German pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in 1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist and supported Hitler's rise to power at first. But when Hitler insisted on the supremacy of the state over religion, Niemöller became disillusioned. He became the leader of a group of German clergymen opposed to Hitler. Unlike Niemöller, they gave in to the Nazis' threats. Hitler personally detested Niemöller and in 1937 had him arrested and eventually confined in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. Niemöller was released in 1945 by the Allies. He continued his career in Germany as a clergyman and as a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II. His statement, sometimes presented as a poem, is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.
Let's not forget our recent past. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana
Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" tonight was a revelation about how the country is reacting to the proposed Islamic Center which was to be called "Cordoba House" in New York, located in fairly close proximity to "Ground Zero" in New York City.
There's really nothing more to add after watching the clip. KO presents the all facts, in a clearly heartfelt opinion piece that uses American Patriotism, facts, common sense and logic to make his case.
What was that about Iraq? Why did we go into Iraq? To free the world, and especially Iraq's citizens of the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. That's its supporters defense of the Iraq invasion of this hour. Well who lives in Iraq? Muslims. I hate to reveal this to anybody on the right who doesn't know this but when they say Iraq is 65% Shia and 32% Sunni you do know that Shia and Sunni are forms of the Muslim religion, right?
We sacrificed 4,415 of our military personnel in Iraq to save Muslims, and there are thousands of us still there tonight to protect Muslims, but we don't want Muslims to open a combination culinary school and prayer space
in Manhattan.
From the beginning of this nation we have fought prejudice and religious intolerance and our greatest enemy stupidity exploited by rapacious politicians. It is only 50 years now, this month since Americans publicly and urgently warned their countryman not to support a presidential candidate because he was Roman Catholic. He would bow to the will not of the American people, but of the Pope. He would be a papist. He would be the agent of a foreign state. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Despite the nobility of our founding and the indefatigable efforts of all of our generations, there have always been those who would happily sacrifice our freedoms, our principals to ward off the latest unprecedented threat, the latest unbeatable "outsiders". But once again at 45 Park Place, we are being told to sell our birth right. To feed the maw of xenophobia and vengeance and mob rule.
The terrorists who destroyed the buildings from which you could only see 45 Park Place as a dot on the ground, wanted to force us to change our country, to become more like the ones (they) knew. What better way could we honor the dead at the World Trade Center than to do the terrorists heavy lifting for them.
Do you think 45 Park Place is where it ends? The moment this monstrous betrayal of our America gained the slightest traction, the next goal was unveiled. "No more building permits for any Mosques in this country" brayed the man from the euphemistically named American Families Association. Of course, he said maybe the permits could be granted if the congregation was "willing to publicly denounce the Koran."
They came first for the building permits....
These words really struck me. Are we as Americans at war with Islam or are we at war with extremists and Al Qaeda? As I recall it was extremists and Al Qaeda who were responsible for 9-11 and the aftermath of terrorism. It wasn't an entire religion...and we better remember that. There are billions of Muslims and far fewer Christians and Jews in this country. If its a war of religions, as the Rightwing fringe would have you believe, we're seriously outnumbered.
And to reiterate Olbermann's words...who did we go to war in Iraq with (Saddam Hussein), and who are we protecting there with our military? Muslims. We have lost at least 4,415 American lives in Iraq and 226 American lives in Afghanistan. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and friends. The country of Iraq is made up almost entirely of Muslims. We protect them over there with the lives of our fellow Americans, only to denigrate and censure them over here? Outrageous. A slap in the face and complete disrespect to all Americans who served and who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thank you Keith Olbermann for presenting a clear headed, intellectual, emotional and honest appraisal of this controversy. You're an invaluable American patriot.