SIGNS OF THE TIME

Right-wing bloggers call me un-patriotic because I don't accept the Thanksgiving mythology, nor do I celebrate it as a holiday. Hey, to me my way of  life (and to us, ours) and to you, yours. No problemo. But don't get it twisted and don't conflate my principled stance based upon justice with your jingoism. Africans don't celebrate slavery, the Japanese don't celebrate the days when the bombs were dropped on Hirsoshima and Nagasaki, the Jews don't celebrate the holocaust, Palestinians don't celebrate the Nakba, so why should I (or we) celebrate "Thanksgiving'" ? Because the colonizers of America do?  If those who dropped the bomb, manned the gas ovens, and usurped the holy land have their own public relations spin on their deeds, or celebrate doing so, then should those on whom the bomb was dropped, or who were marched into the ovens, or whose bones are buried beneath the cities of this land accept the spin and celebrate as well? The popu

Every Muslim should denounce the continued bigoted and racist anti-Muslim statements of individuals involved in last night’s Republican candidate presidential debate. Stating “Obviously, Muslims would be someone you look at, absolutely," former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum identified Muslims who are “younger males” as deserving more scrutiny at airport checkpoints. He declared "The radical Muslims are the people committing these crimes, by and large, with younger males" . Herman Cain , who has made anti-Muslim statements before , continued to show us what black (meaning African American, as opposed to other ethnicities like Arabs, Southern Asians, etc. all of whom can be found in pluralistic America) Uncle Toms look like in the 21st century. In a GQ interview earlier this year Cain said "I have had one very well known Muslim voice say to me directly that a majority of Muslims share the extremist views." He never identified who the owner of that voice