Who’s kidding whom – protesters probably wish for ‘Sharia’ law in U.S.!

There were all those protests by right-wing nitwits held all across the country, including in Chicago on Saturday, to try to take up the cause of “Sharia Law.”

This sentiment not popular amongst protesters

Those are the provisions of law in many Muslim nations that are motivated by the Islamic faith, and not by man. They are the ones that often call for brutal physical punishments for those who violate what is perceived as “God’s word.”

SO I’M SURE the protesters, put together by a group calling itself Act for America, want us to believe they have grand noble intentions in terms of looking out for the rights of individuals who often suffer under such regimes from tyrants who claim they’re doing “God’s will” with their brutality.

Yet I can’t help but be skeptical of these socially conservative types, many of whom have as their real desire the intent to undermine the concept that we have freedom of religion and expression in this country.

They want to spew their rhetoric to stir up resentment against the Islamic religious faith because it isn’t their own faith. And they have the unmitigated gall to do so while waving about the stars and stripes and other symbols of our own nation – even though much of what they spew is “un-American” in its underlying principles.

I really do believe that these people probably wish that Christianity had similar provisions that could be a part of our own law and would impose equally-harsh punishments against people who aren’t exactly like themselves.

MY OWN VIEW of “Sharia law” and of the way many governments in Middle Eastern nations operate is that they are examples of the bad that can occur when one permits religion to have too much influence over the daily operations of a government.

They ought to be the ultimate reason why our society is superior for having a Constitution that does not provide for a national religion and, in fact, gets interpreted by the courts in various ways to ensure that religion does not have too much influence over our daily lives.

Which it shouldn’t, unless by chance we make individual choices to allow it to influence ourselves in such a way. It certainly shouldn’t be permitted to allow people to influence the way others think and behave.

So those right-wing nut-jobs who felt compelled to take to the streets and claim they were sticking up for “our” values and what “we” as a people stand for?

WHO’S KIDDING WHOM?

I found it reassuring to read the reports from Saturday indicating that counter-demonstrators outnumbered these crackpots by a significant ratio. The people who felt the need to stick up for real rights of people rather than the ones who want to look out for themselves and torment others are the ones worthy of our praise.

It wasn’t just limited to Chicago. I understand that in many cities, there were counter-demonstrations that outnumbered the conservative ideologues.

I also got a kick out of learning from a one-time reporter-type counterpart of mine who now works in Indianapolis that the Hoosier city had an Indy Pride parade that occurred the same day as the crackpots’ event. Which I’m sure infuriated them even more than anything associated with Sharia Law.

WE’RE IN AN “Age of Trump” in which the ideologues amongst us want to believe they are the majority – they keep hearing that “silent majority” phrase and want to take it literally. They want to believe their 46 percent really means most of us.

Seeing that sensible people keep prevailing may be a sign that our society has the ability to unite in ways that keep the crackpot element from going too far in trying to drag us all down their own depressing path in life.

Personally, I suspect that if many of these types who gathered to protest Islam were to ever meet up with the hard-liners of the Middle East who tout Sharia Law, they’d probably find they have much in common. Such as a desire to be able to torment those unlike themselves.

Just like I used to think that many of the “hard hat” types of our society had much in common with the Communists of old in terms of a willingness to believe there was nothing wrong with a totalitarian society that accepted the repression of personal rights and freedoms.

  -30-

I’m sure the ‘crackpot’ in Pepe’s restaurant incident thinks he’s the 'hero’

There’s a reason why I have problems with anybody who feels compelled to complain about “political correctness” and what they want to describe as the censoring of anybody who dares speak their mind.
 

How many are bothered by story's slant?

Usually, it turns out that the individual is some sort of jerk who’s upset that the bulk of society (the real majority, not the so-called silent one) is lambasting them for saying something stupid. For treating their ridiculous thoughts as absurdly as they deserve.

AND FOR REFUSING to give them the “last word” on the issue; which is what they really want – the ability to talk trash and have no one call them out on their inanity. Or more appropriately, to be rude in public and get away with it!

That sentiment popped into my mind when I learned of the incident Monday at a Pepe’s restaurant in suburban Hickory Hills where a customer felt compelled to make derogatory remarks to teenage girls who also happened to be eating there.

The girls were Muslim and were wearing headscarves (the gesture of modesty that is part of their religious faith), and it seems the customer was offended by their presence at the same “Mexican” restaurant he chose to dine at.

When the girls tried confronting him about his comments, the customer’s response was to tell them to “leave the country.” When one of the girls called the customer “disgusting,” he responded by becoming physically aggressive, although the girls managed to leave before anyone got hurt.

THE DAILY SOUTHTOWN newspaper reported Thursday that the incident was reported to police by the restaurant’s management and by one of the girls, and that police are studying various videos to try to figure out who the customer was.

Although the newspaper also reported that restaurant management knew the customer as a semi-regular patron of the Hickory Hills restaurant, and plan to inform him he’s no longer welcome to eat there.

Looking at this incident, it is kind of reassuring. Someone who is bothered by the presence of the teenage girls has some sort of hang-ups of their own to deal with. I doubt he would have been as emboldened to speak out if there had been any male presence with them.

But I also suspect that, in his mind, the customer thinks he’s the victim. Just saying what he wants to believe is true and being publicly lambasted for it – since the story also got television coverage on Wednesday and is one of those incidents that will gain national notoriety.

HE PROBABLY WILL go through life thinking he’s the one being picked on just because he spoke out because, in this Age of Trump that we’re now in, his views are supposed to predominate.

Of course, that’s a simple-minded way of viewing the incident, and that’s usually the problem with people who want to get all worked up over political correctness becoming too predominant. They want to think their usually-warped views are entitled to legitimacy.

Even though by the most literal interpretation of Freedom of Expression, the girls in this incident were just as entitled to speak out and put the man in his place as he was to make stupid comments about their presence.

Free speech doesn’t mean people are forced to agree with you, or even give you the last word. We all have a Right to be Wrong, and everybody has a right to speak out against the crackpots of our society.

SO WHOEVER THIS customer was (personally, I could care less because I doubt he and I would have anything worthwhile to talk about), he may well be wondering how his behavior got onto the front page of a newspaper Thursday and he he’s not welcome anymore at a restaurant.

But do we really want to be coming to the defense of anybody who thinks they can lash out against others who just happened to be getting a meal at the same restaurant. There are many times when I eat someplace where I am bothered by the behavior of others. But so long as they don’t directly bother me, what can I say.

There is one part of this incident I find amusing – it seems that Pepe’s management has issued its own apology to the teenaged customers; even though it seems they were unaware of what happened until after it was over. It was because of customers who felt compelled to use their cellphones to record the incident, then post it on various websites, that we know of this.

Pepe’s is sorry that some of their customers can be jerks, and they’d really like it if we don’t hold that fact against them. Even though personally, I can’t recall the last time I ate in one of their restaurants – just because I know of other places that are better and I suspect are “too authentic” for people like this customer to appreciate.

  -30-

Real “majority” will make itself heard, despite ideologue desire to silence us

When women rose up in protest a couple of weekends ago to express their contempt for newly-elected President Donald J. Trump, the general reaction from conservative ideologues was something along the lines of, “Those silly broads!”

Was the Daily News onto something over a year ago?

As though they thought the crowds of hundreds of thousands of people gathering across the nation, including Chicago, could be laughed off. Ignore them long enough, and they’ll go back to the kitchen and fix them a chicken pot pie.

BUT IT SEEMS the negative sentiments expressed by those who find the concept of “President Trump” to be a national embarrassment are not limited to the women.

There are going to continue to be protests held by activist-types concerned about immigration policy and the president’s executive orders that he tries to spin into something that only impacts a few select people from certain countries.

But the reality is that such policies stir up the nativist element of our society – the xenophobes who are inclined to view this as merely the first step (after all, Trump has only been president a couple of weeks now). It’s just a matter of time before restrictive policies can be spread to cover many other parts of the world.

So I expect the protests are going to become more vociferous. More outbursts. More vocal. Particularly since U.S. District Judge James Robarts in Seattle on Friday issued an order that, for now, has halted the Trump action that they counted on to enforce their non-Muslim vision of the world. 

BECAUSE THEY’LL BE on behalf of people that the conservative ideologues want to believe never had any right to be in this country at all (or casting votes in this election, which is the base sentiment behind Trump’s cheap rhetoric that he really won the popular vote last year in the presidential election), the reactions will become more mean-spirited than the laughs that were generated for the women.

They’re going to be hostile. We’ll see how close they push to being violent, when some group of crackpots decide they’re taking matters into their own hands and fighting on behalf of the United States of America in telling those foreigners where to go!

There have been protests all week in places across the nation, including in Chicago on Wednesday night when people marched from the Homeland Security offices to the federal plaza (the site where the women wanted to wind up, but couldn’t because their crowds of possibly up to 250,000 were too large).

There also will be another protest and rally Saturday in East Chicago, Ind., giving those people a chance to express themselves without having to make the trip into the city. It’s not just the Chicago malcontents upset their support for Hillary Clinton wasn’t enough to win her an Election Day victory.

EVEN THE WOMEN had a similar counterpart rally for Northwest Indiana, held in Valparaiso. Although this one is being held in a community where just over half the population is of Latino ethnic origins. Immigration sentiments spread across ethnic labels.

Which also means the hostility will be there. I already have seen countless statements being posted on places throughout the Internet expressing the idea that these people have no right to complain, and that no one will listen to them or ought to pay them any mind.

I saw one Facebook crackpot (who insisted on using a picture of himself in military uniform, which I think ought to constitute a violation of good taste) say that the protests will be successful in 90 days – which is when Trump’s restrictions are allegedly going to cease to exist.

But that’s only because the permanent policies that are now being crafted are to take effect then. It becomes important to make one’s opposition known before the changes become permanent.

I FIND IT reassuring that people are not falling for the Trump-ite spin that says his immigration restrictions merely impact a few individuals – and not even all people with Arab or Middle Eastern ethnic origins. Meaning the bulk of us shouldn’t care.

It really doesn’t matter how few there are. Because any hostile policy reflects poorly upon us as a people. We lose a lot of the moral high ground our society always claims to have when it asserts itself over the rest of the world.

And perhaps seeing the women and the Latinos and just about everyone else who wasn’t in the 46 percent of voters who actually thought Donald J. Trump was fit to be president is a sign of a lesson truly learned; the one expressed in that poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller about cowardice during the Nazi era in Germany – you’re all aware of it:

First, they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist,

Then, they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist,

Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.

Then, they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.

Whether he likes it or not, the masses are going to let their opposition to Trump on many grounds be known; regardless of how much the ideologues wind up being annoyed at the realization they’re outnumbered.

 -30-

Assuaging Trump backers’ egos create incidents at O’Hare, airports elsewhere

It was a depressing mood that spread this weekend at airports throughout our nation, including at Chicago's O’Hare International Airport. What with the number of people suddenly impacted by the executive order imposed by new President Donald J. Trump.

Welcome to Chicago? More like, Drop Dead!!!!! from Donald Trump, if you happen to be Arab

As in the one that put sudden restrictions on people from select Arab and Middle Eastern nations being able to enter the United States.

THIS WEEKEND BECAME the first practical impact of the new era that our nation has moved into – and which is one that is totally in line with the sentiments of the 46 percent of the electorate that actually voted for Trump to be president.

All across the nation at airports that accept international flights there were people being stuck in customs and detained indefinitely. A federal judge in Brooklyn, N.Y., issued an order Saturday night preventing them from being deported and they eventually were released and allowed to disperse amongst the U.S. populace, but their long-term fate is uncertain.

It didn’t matter that many of these people had relatives living within the United States with valid visas or full citizenship. Or that some of them had dual citizenship with other nations (such as Great Britain) that are full-fledged U.S. allies.

Saturday night, there were reports of some 18 people being stuck at O’Hare for hours on end, with similar numbers being found at other airports across the country. There was bureaucratic nonsense, and some even had their Facebook accounts inspected to get clues as to their political leanings. Activists upset about this had the International terminal blocked Saturday night, complicating the ability of people to get into, and out of, the airport. They didn't leave until the early hours of Sunday.

TRUMP: Appeasing the 46 percent

WHAT A GREAT way for our nation – which likes to hold itself up as the ideal that nations around the globe ought to strive to be like – to greet people.

“Drop dead, rag head!,” is what we might as well be telling them. Barack Obama felt like a long-distant memory Saturday night.

It’s not just people of Middle Eastern ethnic backgrounds who got detained (out of suspicion that they’re Islamic, which just naturally makes them subversive to the U.S. way of life, according to the nativist kooks). There were news reports of anybody coming from Iran getting extra scrutiny, regardless of who they are or what their backgrounds may be.

OBAMA: Did he ever really happen?

All of this is coming about because of the executive order that Trump signed a couple of days following his orders (border walls and sanctuary cities) aimed at harassing the Latino segment of our society.

THESE ARAB-ORIENTED ORDERS are the result of the Trump action that singles out people of seven specific nations – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – who will not be able to legally enter the United States for at least 90 days, and Trump on Sunday insisted his order remains in effect although aides are now talking down some of its enforcement provisions.

In theory, that measure is because U.S. officials will spend the next three months concocting policies concerning immigration and travel back and forth from Middle Eastern nations. Just like they're supposedly abolishing the Affordable Care Act and we should trust them to come up with a replacement policy in the future.

Although I suspect many of those who think healthcare reform was subversive also are of a particularly nativist and xenophobic bent want who want to believe these Middle East nations are producing all the “radical Islamic terrorists” who are a threat to our society’s existence.

Words of advice particularly relevant this weekend

And you had better use that particular “radical Islamic terrorist” phrase to describe those people, or else face the wrath of the ideologues as they concoct a policy to restrict your further existence within this society!

IN THE LONG run, I realize this is a short-term series of incidents this weekend. Although we shouldn’t think these are moments that these individuals impacted now will someday be capable of laughing about. Even though the Department of Homeland Security is trying to downplay Saturday's harassment by saying fewer than 1 percent of international travelers were impacted.

It’s embarrassing to our national reputation. It undermines any claims to superiority we might try to make about ourselves. It really is pathetic that we’re giving in to the most paranoid people of our society and letting their fears dictate our federal policy.

It’s giving reinforcement to the notion that the campaign phrase “Make America Great Again” really means some warped vision of what our nation never was, except in the minds of those with the most nativist of extremes. To which Trump is now working in high gear to appease; and which groups like the ACLU will have to work overtime to combat.

And the sad part will be those people amongst us who not only knowingly voted for this, but fully approve. Because it fits their vision, to which the only phrase I can truly think of to describe it is, “un-American!”

  -30-

We hear the facts of 75 years ago; but have we really learned a lesson?

It has been 75 years since the date that “lives in infamy” (or so says FDR), and just over 15 years since the alleged sequel date when the Pentagon and World Trade Center were the targets of people who decided to hijack commercial jetliners for their personal use as bombs.

A little ridiculously over the top, in retrospect

Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11, 2001 do have one thing in common (even though I hardly consider a batch of religiously-motivated thugs the equivalent of the militaristic empire of Japan back in the 1940s).

THEY ARE DATES that the more paranoid segments of our society like to trot out as justification for their isolationist thoughts about the way we all ought to live our lives.

As though we live in their warped, paranoid world and have to merely accept it as the way things are!

Flipping around the massive lineup of cable television channels this past weekend eager to fill up all that airtime, I stumbled across several documentaries focusing on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into the Second World War.

All of which highlighted the intense hostility that developed in this country for anything connected to Japanese people in ways that were never felt toward anyone espousing fascism or wearing swastika armbands (even though there is evidence that the old German-American Bund was more of a threat to the U.S. in those days than Japanese-ethnics who had emigrated to this country).

ALL TOO SIMILAR to the hostilities often expressed these days by a segment of our society that is determined to view the Islamic religion, or anything to do with Arab people regardless of what religion they practice, as something bordering on subversive that is best eradicated from this country.

Has the passage of time ...

I’d hope we don’t get to the point of anyone seriously proposing internment camps for Muslims (although I have heard people try to claim that the viewpoint toward Japanese all those years ago justifies the current attitude toward Arabs).

Even though there are those amongst us who view the campaign rhetoric of President-elect Donald Trump toward Muslims (all that talk of mass deportation) as being equally offensive as the past Japanese-American policies.

Too similar to the official attitude of the United States toward many of those would-be immigrants of the Jewish faith who tried to flee Nazi-era Germany persecution – only to be turned away at Ellis Island or any other U.S. port of entry.

... taught us a lesson?

HOW MANY OF those who perished in the notorious Nazi concentration camps died thinking the idea of an “American dream” was a crock of lies?

Just as those who seem to want some sort of official U.S. hostile policy toward the Islamic religious faith appear to be guilty of George Santayana’s fear; “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

For some of us seem to have not learned the lessons of our past mistakes – or are so determined to believe we never make mistakes that we rewrite the past in our own minds to make it seem far more noble than it ever was. Similar to those who took Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan seriously.

This country has had its moments of greatness, but not for the reasons the Trump-ites would cite.

YES, I VIEW the results of last month’s elections (which will be confirmed in coming weeks by the actions of the Electoral College) as evidence that the national mood hasn’t learned from past mistakes – the nation made a statement in favor of paying greater attention to those who apparently went through high school history thinking the topic was boring.

Parody is what some Trump backers want to become reality!

Because some of us haven’t learned a thing, and they’re determined to spread their vacuous sensibilities amongst the rest of us.

With regards to the concept of internment camps, I once wrote a commentary speculating that hostilities toward Latinos were growing to the point where I might someday wind up receiving some sort of compensation payment similar to what was eventually paid to Japanese-American survivors of those 1940s-era camps.

Although I now realize there’s no way these nativist-types would ever do such hostilities because even they know we’re desperately needed here to do the actual work to prevent their vision of an Anglo-led society from devolving into a real “third world” nation.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Personally, I'd rather reminisce about 1941 being the year of baseball greats Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams giving us the on-field accomplishments (the 56-game hit streak and .406 batting average respectively) for which they're still remembered all these years later. Yes, I also recently saw a repeat of Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary -- specifically the segment about the 1940s and how quickly we in this country went from a sports-mindset to a war-mindset. With even DiMaggio and Williams feeling compelled to enlist into military service. Could anyone envision Kris Bryant or any modern ballplayer taking similar action?

Heck, I think I'd even rather remember the year for that dreadful early-1980s film "1941" that gave us the sight of actor John Belushi as an Army Air Corps pilot determined to be the first to shoot down a Japanese plane over U.S. soil. Will anyone of the future have positive thoughts about the year 2016? That is, with the exception of Chicago Cubs fans who will probably spend the rest of their lives forcing us all to remember what occurred!

What constitutes a “real” American? That’s the question we must answer

Does this bobblehead have more sense?

The latest controversy absorbing the attention of the Donald Trump campaign doesn’t surprise me in the least – the fact that he would rudely attack a Muslim couple and downplay the sacrifice their son made while serving in the U.S. military is way too predictable.

The fact that some Republican political officials are now feeling inclined to bad-mouth Trump and claim he ought to be apologetic is not only going to fail to warrant an apology, it is likely to offend the mentality of Trump backers.

IT MAY WIND up being used as further evidence by those people of how the Republican Party is out of touch with what they feel about this country.

And I don’t doubt that Trump himself is garnering some form of emotional strength from being criticized publicly on this issue. It may well be the perfect example of how differently from the masses the Trump-types are in viewing the world.

At stake is the activity of the past few days centering around Khizr Khan and his wife, whose son Humayun, was killed in action while serving in the Army.

The couple was used by Democrats during last week’s presidential nominating convention to show an example of an Islamic family making the same ultimate sacrifice of losing a family member to military service as many other families in this country have done.

 

How many bothered by front page photo?

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be an example of how nonsensical so much of Trump’s anti-Islamic rhetoric during his presidential campaign has been.

Trump, if he had any political sense, or compassion of any kind, would have let it go. The Khans would have had their convention moment on national television, and most likely would already have been forgotten.

But Trump is Trump. He felt compelled to respond with ridicule of the couple, which caused Khizr Khan to retort with comments about how lacking in humanity or a soul Trump truly is.

It seems that Khan has captured the sentiment of many people – as there are many Republican operatives who wish Trump would just shut up. After all, GOP candidates don’t usually go about criticizing military personnel or their families.

THIS IS EVEN an issue that has brought together Illinois’ two candidates for a U.S. Senate seat – both Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth made a point on Monday of seeing who could come out and publicly bash Trump the hardest.

The long-time Naval Reserve officer in Kirk and one-time Army helicopter pilot in Duckworth both wanted it known they thought Trump would make a completely unfit Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military if he actually won the presidential election.

Did Mark Kirk repudiate Trump thoroughly,...

And not just because of the draft deferments he got some five decades ago that kept him from ever having to serve in the military during the Vietnam War – I’ll give Trump the benefit of the doubt and accept that he really had bone spurs in his heels that would have made him physically unfit for military service, even though he also has boasted that the Philadelphia Phillies expressed some interest in him playing baseball professionally when he was a teenager.

But I don’t think Trump will be swayed by any of this. Maybe not even the fact that his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, says he wishes Trump had kept quiet about this. Because I’m sure there are people who perceive individuals like the Khans as somehow not deserving of the ability to think of themselves as being part of this nation.

... or did Tammy Duckworth top him?

THEY PROBABLY VIEW the sacrifice of Humayun Khan as being less than significant. In fact, much of the “meat” of their political philosophy is a serious debate over who deserves to be able to think of themselves as belonging in this country to begin with! What with all their rhetoric about deportation and exclusion of certain individuals who aren't Anglo enough for their tastes!

It wouldn’t surprise me if they see that Chicago Tribune front page on Tuesday with a full-color photograph of Khan’s headstone, and are offended that a military headstone would bear the star and crescent symbol of Islam where they think the Christian cross ought to be.

A lot of things that reflect the reality of modern-day society offend them, and they perceive this presidential campaign as a conflict to restore the old order of things. That is something that the bulk of us ought to keep in mind when we ponder our own thoughts about whether we should have Hillary or Donald in the Oval Office.

Do we really “make America great” by returning to many of the nonsensical hang-ups we had in the 19^th Century; or come full around and accept the realities of where we are in the 21^st?

  -30-

You’d think Arabs pulling off takeover, rather than just sharing in Chicago

I have to admit that the big difference between the Chicago I knew as a kid some four to five decades ago and the one that exists now is the presence of Arabs and, in some cases, Islam.

It doesn’t phase me anymore to see a woman walking down the aisle of the supermarket while wearing a hijab, particularly if she has a slew of kids trailing her whom she’s trying to keep from running roughshod all over the store.

JUST ABOUT LIKE any other mother who happens to include grocery shopping among her day’s errands.

And I also know enough that not every single Arab is Muslim – there are those whose families at some point in time figured that assimilation to a new country included a religious conversion. Besides, most Arabs I have known had their families come to this country to get away from the very same religious fanatics many of us express fear about.

 

Considering that I always viewed the Chicago area’s great strength as being its multi-ethnic mix of people, I can’t help but think of Arabs as just another ethnic group – and one whose cuisine definitely enhances the style of edibles we are exposed to.

Unless you’re the type of person who thinks Chinese orange chicken or Taco Bell is the extent to which you wish to be exposed to anything "foreign?"

THE SAD THING is that probably is the mentality of some people whose criticism is shouted out so loud that we presume they’re a majority. They’re the ones most likely who keep giving Donald Trump poll leads in his multiple candidate presidential campaigns – even though all the other candidates put together dwarf him.

That’s the thought we ought to remind ourselves of when we consider the latest dispute in suburban Palos Park (the community that feels like it was built out in the middle of the forest preserves) that someone wants to develop a mosque there.

The Muslim American Society bought a property that once was a First Church of Christ Scientist, but had literally been sold off. As in that church didn’t want the property any longer. Nobody forced them out.

Yet there are those who want to think that this is somehow evidence that Muslims are desecrating a Christian church and using it for their own nefarious purposes.

THE SAD PART is that this issue isn’t new. It isn’t just the crackpots being inspired by Donald Trump’s “stupid talk” about Muslims and Arabs not belonging in this country.

I remember back nearly a couple decades ago when officials wanted to build a new structure in nearly Palos Heights to provide a mosque for the growing Arab population in the southwest suburbs – only to have the issue burst into a bigoted mess.

To his credit, then-Mayor Dean Koldenhaven thwarted an effort to use tax dollars to buy out the would-be mosque developers, believing it to be motivated purely by religious prejudice. Of course, he wound up losing his re-election bid, and there are those local residents who remain convinced they did the right thing by doing so.

Such sentiments continue to exist whenever someone brings up the concept of a mosque. Some sentiments just can’t wither away, no matter how stupid.

FROM A PERSONAL perspective, perhaps this is an evolution – since it would seem that Islam is now the exotic faith that scares people, not Catholicism. Although Trump’s willingness to smack about Pope Francis makes me wonder if he wouldn’t mind anti-Catholic sentiment raising its ugly head to bolster his presidential fantasies.

And as someone of Mexican ethnic origins who also has been included as subject matter for Trump tirades, it would seem that the nativists of our society are truly willing to extend their net of hostility towards anybody they can snag.

So as for the ongoing fight over developing a mosque in Palos Park, the details are all so similar that the entire battle seems so predictable. And boring to hear about.

You’d think the xenophobes of our society would come up with something new just to keep themselves intrigued. Although I suppose so long as spewing the same nativist nonsense works time and time again, they’ll keep spewing. Until we, the true majority of our society, come to our senses and stop giving such people any mind.

  -30-

Some of us don’t want to consider anyone unlike us. I say it's their loss

Perhaps it is because I come from an ethnic origin that would never be mistaken for the stereotypical WASP – I tend to view Arabs and those of the various ethnic origins of the Middle East as just another group of people.

Yet another language in our societal mix, and let’s be honest, some of their foods are quite good.

SO WHEN I hear people get all worked up over Islam and Muslims, I can’t help but think the over-reaction rating is kicking into over gear. Don’t people realize that over-reacting so much isn’t good for their health?

Such useless stress.

Such as all the stink created last week with that now-suspended professor from Wheaton College who offended the higher-ups at the place that likes to think of itself as evangelist Billy Graham’s alma mater.

Her offense? She made a point of wearing a hijab to class, while also saying that Christian and Islamic religious faiths have a common basis. The oft-claimed statement made by people who don’t let ideological leanings dominate their thoughts that we all ultimately pray to the same god.

COLLEGE OFFICIALS HAVE since elaborated to say they don’t care about the headscarf she wore to class. It’s her comments that bother them.

Because the college that likes to believe it is a place where people can seriously study religious faith seems to have its own ideological leanings it wants to spew. And yes, I choose the word “spew” such as is done with garbage because I can’t help but think the college’s action is something they ought to know better than to resort to.

Or maybe it’s just that I’m an Illinois Wesleyan alum and remember Wheaton College as one of our athletic rivals.

But I can’t help but think the college has created a whole mess upon its own reputation; and one that is particularly sad because it was avoidable. All it would have taken was to accept that a professor was trying to make a larger point.

WHICH, IF YOU think about it, is what a serious place of higher learning is supposed to be about. I don’t know how this situation will turn out, other than that I’m sure Wheaton officials are ensconced in their own little world (most universities are) and think they’re really not accountable to anyone else.

Similar, I’d say, to the incident in rural Virginia where people are sending hostile e-mails to officials in the school district where parents are offended by a calligraphy lesson.



The offensive assignment

Students were asked to copy Islamic writing – not with any sense of comprehending what they were writing, but to try to copy the form of the various letters and symbols.

No one was trying to teach the meaning of the Shahada, that prayer that includes the line, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

BUT YOU HAVE some people out there who already are peeved that they’re not allowed to impose Christian prayer on all students as a part of the regular classroom activity feeling that someone is now trying to force Islam down their children’s throats.

Probably because they presume everybody else in the world will behave in the same bad way they want to behave.

I’d like to say those people are just too isolated from the real world to realize how nonsensical their behavior is. But we have to be honest enough to realize this kind of widespread hostility exists elsewhere – why else isn’t Donald Trump the ultimate joke of the campaign trail?

And so long as we have a government that doesn’t go out of its way to reinforce the racial and ethnic hang-ups some in our society have, that’s probably the best we as a people can hope for.

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EXTRA: How quickly we forget!

I wasn’t planning on writing anything noting Friday’s date – 14 years since the day those airplanes got hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon – with another one intended for the Capitol missing because passengers managed to overpower the would-be hijackers.

One of few Ill. papers to do much w/ Friday front page

So much for what was supposed to be a statement in the name of the great Allah against the decadence of Western culture. What it really did was gave the Far Right in this country motivation to tell everyone else (for a while, at least) to just shut up and do what they told us to do.

FEAR OF WHAT we don’t understand has a way of bringing out our national sense of paranoia!

Some of us are going to never forget details of that day, and some of us are probably going to become grossly offended at the fact that not everyone around them is all whipped up into a pseudo-patriotic fury on this day.

Yet time does pass. Take the Washington Post, which reported on a new Census Bureau study that shows nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population these days either wasn’t born on Sept. 11, 2001 – or was so young that the day didn’t mean a thing to them, other than what they’ve been told about it since by their parents.

That percentage is only going to increase with the passage of time. Come the 25^th anniversary of the event in 2026 (I suspect by then I’ll be pushed into news business retirement) we may be at a point where a slight majority of the country will think of the event as something they’ve seen news footage of – rather than as an actual event that took place in real life.

PERSONALLY, I STILL remember the paranoia of that morning some 14 years ago, when I was trying to get to the downtown offices of my employer United Press International, while many others were trying to flee the Loop out of fear that Chicago was the next target.



Remembering target that wasn't hit

I also recall the sight of police riding around downtown on motorcycles with lights and sirens flashing; to discourage anyone who thought this might be the time to start looting.

Then, there was the sense of abandonment later in the afternoon – after all those people had fled and the Loop was a ghost town for the day.

But I’m sure there also will be some kids who will hear such stories, and wonder when I’ll shut up and talk about something interesting – something like Justin Bieber, or perhaps all those lesbians that Howard Stern always likes to talk about.

IT’S GOING TO get even worse in the future. Probably like one of my older Facebook friends who posted a note earlier this week complaining that there wasn’t a lot of remembrance of the fact that the Second World War officially ended 70 years ago.

“I guess too busy posting bull shit. No respect for their fathers,” he wrote.

How long until the day comes when something similar is written about the day when most of us got a half-day off of work because everybody was afraid the next out-of-control jetliner might be headed for the (then-still) Sears Tower?

Or worse, becomes so long ago that nobody remembers – just like I doubt most people could tell you what exactly was being talked about when people used to say, “Remember the Maine!”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Following is the official proclamation made Friday by Gov. Bruce Rauner to mark the significance of the date.

WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001, tragedy unfolded on American soil as four commercial airlines were hijacked by terrorists and began a journey of destruction; and,

WHEREAS, at 8:46 a.m. (EST), American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 92 people, struck the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City; and,

WHEREAS, at 9:03 a.m. (EST), United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 people, flew into the south tower of the World Trade Center; and,

WHEREAS, at 9:37 a.m. (EST), American Airlines Flight 77, carrying 64 people, hit the western façade of the Pentagon in Washington D.C.; and,

WHEREAS, at 10:03 a.m. (EST) further loss of life was prevented when passengers and crew members heroically crashed United Airlines Flight 93 into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, killing all those on board; and,

WHEREAS, nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children were tragically killed in the heinous attacks; and,

WHEREAS, tens of thousands emergency personal including firefighters, police officers and military personnel came to the aid to help their fellow man, including volunteers from across the country; and,

WHEREAS, in the aftermath of these horrendous acts, the United States of America bound together with courage and resolve and emerged more united as a people; and,

WHEREAS, on November 30, 2001, after passing the United States House and Senate, President George W. Bush proclaimed September 11 as Patriot Day, a day of remembrance and national mourning; and,

WHEREAS, the day of September 11 will forever be etched in the memory and hearts of all Americans; the victims will never be forgotten, and the heroism displayed by first responders, service men and women, and countless Americans who aided in humanitarian relief efforts and search and rescue operations will serve as a lasting model for all; and

THEREFORE, I, Bruce Rauner, Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2015, as PATRIOT DAY in Illinois, and order all persons or entities governed by the Illinois Flag Display Act to fly their flags at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on this day, in honor and remembrance of the heroes of September 11, 2001, and all of those who lost their lives.

Muslim convention – holiday weekend fun or target for troublemaking rabble?

It will be intriguing to watch suburban Tinley Park this weekend, as the community with a convention center will be the site of a convention meant to give the public greater awareness of Islam as a religion.

It’s the 24^th annual event, and it’s being held this year at the Tinley Park Convention Center. Starting Friday, it is scheduled to run through Sunday.

LOOKING AT THE program for the event put forth on the Internet, it would seem that the weekend will include sessions such as a fashion show, children’s activities and other programs meant to bolster the interests of small business owners within the Muslim community.

It seems like many other sessions I have seen take place throughout the years, and seems to be about as un-notable as those programs.

Except, …

Things always get different these days whenever we talk about the Middle East and Islam. Certain people always are going to want to let their paranoia run amok and their ignorance take over.

ANYBODY WHO WANTS to convince me that this gathering coming right at the Labor Day holiday weekend is somehow a gathering of subversives wishing to take over the nation can just stow it right now!

I’m not in the mood for hearing paranoid pap. Then again, these are probably the same people who think the Labor Day holiday weekend is somehow subversive because it celebrates the concept of the worker. As though Karl Marx is the primary thought that runs through our minds when we roast a few weenies (or whatever other edible we choose to consume) for a holiday barbecue.

Personally, I see the event being put together by The Mosque Cares of suburban East Hazel Crest and Imam W. Deen Mohammad as just more evidence that our Chicago area continues to evolve in its ethnic composition.

But I also can’t help note the location of the convention and its proximity to Orland Park (the two suburbs are adjacent in southwestern Cook County – a region that has developed a significant Arab population in its many municipalities). That was the site of an incident just a couple of weeks ago.

THE LOCAL PUBLIC library put together a program for the community in which academics with knowledge of Arabs, the Middle East and Islam were to speak – in hopes of educating the public.

Instead, a collection of radical types showed up with the intent of disrupting the program – while trying to claim it was the fault of the people on the panel that there was any controversy.

All too similar to the actions of some 50 years ago when civil rights activists who were abused by angry white mobs were then further dumped on by police – with the establishment trying to justify such conduct by claiming the activists caused the problem by not staying in their (subservient, of course) place.

Perhaps it is evidence of how we have advanced in a half-century. When the police were called for in Orland Park, no one got arrested. But it was quickly seen that the problem was from the people whose purpose was disruption.

THE LOCAL POLICE did not follow the literal words of one-time Mayor Richard J. Daley and “preserve disorder.” They kept the two sides from erupting into a full-fledged riot of any sort. They did their jobs.

Let’s only hope that nothing similar (as I write this commentary on Friday, I am unaware of any outbursts) occurs during this holiday weekend.

Because I really can’t see how an event that includes a session on what exactly preparation of food in accordance with Halal could create any legitimate controversy.

Unless the Muslims themselves take offense to the fact that their convention was being held in a facility (although not necessarily the same room) that, just a week earlier, was the site of the Midwest Pole Dancing Competition!

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