Lacking Respect

THEM TWO CRAZIES who messed with the wrong rednecks the other week in Dallas and paid for it with their lives are being described by friends and family as true, loyal, patriotic Americans, America firsters all the way. And yet they were both apparently rather recent converts to Islam. Often times members of religious or ethnic groups who are widely despised within a country try to gain acceptance by being very patriotic. In Both world wars, in midwestern America, German immigrant families painted their houses and businesses red, white, and blue, and flew the stars and stripes with gusto. Many Jews early in Hitler's rule tried to show conspicuous loyalty to Germany. People want to be accepted. You wonder what might have happened had there been any chance for a dialogue between the Mohammed drawers and the two angry Moslems in Dallas. They could have started by agreeing on their love of America, and from there, who knows what might have been possible? Maybe the leaders of the let's draw the prophet Mohammed crowd would help if they would emphasize that they have no particular antipathy towards any religion in particular, they simply resent being forced by their politically correct countrymen to respect what they do not respect. Isn't that the jist of it? Terrorism is not nurtured or promulgated by the internet, or hatred of Christianity, or anything other than lack of respect. Mocking another's religiosity is certainly not respectful.