I gota admit: Prior to Cassandra’s post, I was conflicted with issues of RIGHTS vs. common courtesy. Hence the `flag burning` metaphor, which, although misguided, forms it’s basic reasoning from notions of a golden rule and common sense & consideration. I mean, you would not introduce yourself to a child undergoing Leukemia treatment by saying, “Yikes, little girl, you look like a apace alien; those eyes! In fact all of you look the same, like a space alien..in the headlights!” As an American you were born with the inalienable right to free speech, yes, but you also usually gauge your words to suit the variables of appropriateness and etiquette. And so I WAS conflicted. ..BUT the Ground Zero Mosque concept is a determinedly [gross] misdirection of all rules of decency & consideration, and rights & privileges --- and for sake of win-at-all-costs politics.

It is pathetic. And..Pathetic is no way to preserve customs and traditions. Pathetic is no way to maintain a sense of self and community. And in a time when the frog is in the pot and the heat is steadily rising, PATHETIC is no way to evolve. Is it, Sir & Madam Politician, Ms. & Mr. Pundit? ..Is it?

~~

In addition: Just a few minutes ago (as I looked back at my notes to make sure I said what I came to say) a couple of wise guys (thanx, wise guys) passed this lucid editorial on to the attentive, and I believe..herein..is THE definitive memorandum to the people and our `leaders`.

[Sorry no embed, but the link works..and it is really worth the extra effort, ..really..]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38730223/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/

As a people, I hope we are able to heed the wisdoms and carry the news.… (We’re due.)

With the constant provocation via twisted information and purposeful politically rooted propaganda, it is SO easy to forget the basic human values that most of us uphold. & the source cause of this horrific civic mismanagement of we, the people, is the preposterous preponderance of our politicians (who work from a palette of broken aims, motivated by wrongnesses nearly indefinable anymore, and yet they have the lion’s share of the floor, they own or are indebted to the lion’s share of the floor, and we are immersed in an ever-darkening sea of exploitation. & we are being busted, fragment by fragment, by the broken aims of the most powerful force any of us has ever witnessed). JMHO

Between Leukemia & vile deeds of our politicians & their pundits, …I’m coming apart.

Let’s hope our willingness to talk and reason and rise to effort can lead us, individually & en masse, to a time of enlightenment ..before we become what a mighty sum are apparently intent on shaping us into:

`Roads Of Germany` by Bob Geldof

I'm driving on the road that Hitler built I'm driving on the road that Hitler built This is the place where history stopped to shit And I'm driving on the road that Hitler built

I'm driving on the road that Stalin built next There's more holes in Joe's than Adolf's But what would you expect I wonder what the Germans did To fall from history's nest And I'm driving on the road that Stalin built next

On the roads of Germany On the roads of Germany These are the roads of the 20th century And there's blood and steel and leather Mixed into that concrete When you're riding on the roads of high Germany

I'm cruising on Konrad's Autobahn Konrad's got a Beetle and Ludwig a Trabant And Willy's got a Merc and Erich's got a tank But that road only took me to a concrete dead end trap

We're driving on the road that never ends All roads lead to exit signs and then they start again And Helmut's building on the wheel of history as it spins And history never ends 'cause it's too busy beginning

On the roads of Germany On the roads of Germany These are the roads of the 20th century And there's blood and steel and leather Mixed into that concrete When you're riding on the roads of high Germany

And I'm walking in a Black Forest lane And I step into the trees for to get some leafy shade And I fall asleep in some dappled sunlit glade And I dream and in my dream I am lost and afraid And it grows dark, it grows damp and I shiver and I'm cold And deep inside the forest something obscenely old Stirs and shakes and comes awake and in it's putrid pit It belches and it squirms in its own dirt and filth And slithers on it's stinking slime while everything holds its breath And its slow thighs, blank eyes pitiless as the past Reborn from its fitful sleep, its hour come again at last Slouches towards its own Jerusalem to be re-cast And in my horror I recognize myself in it as it passes Familiar and repulsive and as old as mortal man This philosophy of brutality, ignorance and hate Buried deep in everyone waiting to escape And you must kill it before it kills you and everything in its wake And I take my knife and I kill it, and it screams and then I wake And I'm terrified and horrified and in this mortal state I stagger toward the curbside of the 4 lane motorway "Drive" I say and we drive and soon I stop shaking But I can't stop thinking 'bout these dreams and revelations Except it's not a dream it's real and it's of our own making And it's not just Germany it's everywhere and the whole world is a-quaking As we turn onto this road we all seem to be taking And you can't help thinking these things on the roads of Germany