We Are Not Our Prejudices

In 1966 and 67 when they were filming the original Planet of the Apes the cast and crew stumbled upon an interesting sociological phenomenon. For those of you who have never seen the movie or haven’t seen it in a long time, there are three species of ape featured; chimpanzees, orangutans and gorillas.

Roddy McDowell and his counterpart, Cornelius.

The makeup worn was extensive and delicate. Once on, it really could not be taken off for the entire day of shooting. Actors had to eat smoothies for lunch through straws…and delicately. So, meals were generally eaten with full on ape make up. Here’s what would happen.

No matter who was underneath the make up, black, white, Asian or otherwise, each of the three species tended to sit at the same tables with each other, never mixing until someone realized what was going on. The chimps would sit with the chimps, orangutans with orangutans and gorillas with gorillas.

This, to me, tells us a lot about how we as the animals known as human beings operate. We are naturally gravitated toward that which is like us, and suspicious of that which is unlike us. Old point, I know. But an important one because I think this goes to the heart of what America strives to be, as opposed to what it is.

We have initial reactions in our guts about what’s different, who’s different. These reactions are not rational, they are based on nothing more than fear. Sometimes there is a level of experience behind that fear. Sometimes not. But the instinctive needpreference to be with the familiar is paramount.

For some of us, this is a given and we develop, over time, a strategy to overcome our prejudice. We ask ourselves questions, such as; What am I really afraid of? What am I basing this reaction on? Can I get past this sensation to see what’s really there? With a little effort we tend to be able to move past it.

That’s why I have held to my belief that we are all racist in some way shape or form. It’s inherent. What makes us better, what moves us past that is our other innate behavior. The ability to question ourselves.

Some of us are better at it than others. I don’t have much patience for people who refuse to do it. People like George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, or for that matter Christopher Hitchens.

Some of us simply sink further into our prejudices. We remain comfortable with them. We look for statements and events that make that security blanket of the familiar thicker and warmer. We don’t notice that when we take that blanket and pull it over our heads, it gets too dark to see that there’s a world outside that blanket, and it’s not exactly a world that fits our warm comfort.

Hence, Arizona. Now look, I don’t actually have an issue with maintaining some enforcement of expecting people to have proof of citizenship on them. The fact is, if you have ID, you should have it on you. That’s true no matter where or what you are. But when the law suddenly states that law enforcement can act on its own hunches (because there’s no real way to define ‘reasonable suspicion’ any other way. ) and when you threaten that the state can sue said law enforcement for NOT acting on those hunches..well..you’re just saying that you’re making sure you look out for the unfamiliar.

My beautiful homestate filled with flawed sheeple.

Governor Brewer can state over and over again that racial profiling is illegal. But until she actually says WHY it’s illegal and listens to the Sheriff’s of the border counties on why the law makes it harder not easier on their efforts, then she’s acting on that prejudice. She proves my point even further when she signs legislation banning ethnic studies in her state for middle and high schools.

(It’s worth noting too, that those Mexicans they hate so much were there first.)

It’s no better here in New York City where two mosques are being planned for the area right across the street from Ground Zero.

Reprehensible Representative Peter King is offended and some 9/11 families are too as well as the same idiots who are afraid to try terrorists on American soil. Well, I’m sorry these people can’t see past their prejudices on this one either.

Honestly, when I first read about it, I too had a moment of twinge. I’m ashamed to say that my initial reaction was one of distaste. But then I remembered something. I’m an American and an intelligent human being and I stand for better than that.

Islam did not smash down the Twin Towers. A bunch of sick idiots following a power hungry schmuck hiding behind religion did that. And frankly every religion is guilty of that sin.

Let me explain something about the financial district of Manhattan. It is one of the most excellent examples of bad planning that you can imagine. Most of the tallest buildings in the city are concentrated in this area. An area where 60% of the streets are the same width they were 400 years ago when New York (then New Amsterdam) was first settled. To say this area is crowded during the day would be as if to say boiling water hurts when you touch it.

Those small streets themselves are lined with shops and food carts. The vast vast majority of those carts and many of those shops are owned and/or run by Muslim Americans. I’m talking about donut and coffee carts, falafel stands, hot dog stands, kebob stands, (is it bad that I keep thinking about Homer Simpson buying Kluv Kolahsh in front of the World Trade Center?) halal hamburger stands, pretzel and chestnut carts, jewelry shops, restaurants, delis......

So again…IT’S FUCKING CROWDED.

Now, you have a vast population of Muslim Americans working in this area. They have been here for a long time. Some of them were killed on 9/11. Are we actually going to suggest that they can’t have a place to worship, because they happen to share a claim to a faith that was had by the dickbrains that crashed the Twin Towers?

The fact is, we need a 13 story mosque in that area, because people of all faiths and professions literally spill onto the streets in that part of town.

When I worked in midtown it took me door to door 40 to 50 minutes to get to work. In the time I was working in the Financial District last year, 3 miles closer to me, it took over an hour. That’s because of crowd navigation. I’m not exaggerating.

So there is not only a spiritual need, but a PRACTICAL need.

Are we really going to not get past our own prejudices caused by associations that are more emotional than rational?

I say no. I say we are Americans and we stand for freedom.

It shouldn’t surprise me. Gretchen Carlson has the audacity to suggest that a Muslim woman won Miss USA out of political correctness. Other right wing idiots seem to be falling over themselves to join the chorus on that one. It couldn’t possibly be because she’s hot.

Actually, the real problem is that Carlson, a beauty pageant queen herself should be careful. All beauty pageants are bullshit and if she starts trying to peel away at that issue, she’s just going to skin herself alive.

We need to poke our heads out of our security blankets and see the world and recognize the world outside doesn’t have room for us to not question our fears.

I’m sorry for the grief of the 9/11 families. I am friends with a 9/11 widow who in fact thinks this is all nonsense. But they need to move beyond the blanket over their grief and remember who the real enemy is.

Otherwise the terrorists have already won.

They like us in our dark warm blankets, because then we can only see what’s in our dark little fearful minds instead of what is actually happening.

Let’s remember who and what we stand for. Let’s remember that for the past 150 years we have built this nation on the sweat and backs of the different. Let’s.Be.Better.

I also recommend this piece for some historical perspective on the Crusades.

Fear, Loathing and Godwin's Law in the United States

I want to begin my blog entry with this clip from Chris Matthews' show Hardball this evening.

I'm not the greatest fan of Mr. Matthews. He's the kind of guy that is too in love with the game of politics most of the time. He tends to miss a lot of things, but I do admire his tenacity and his drive...and the very enthusiasm that annoys me, also amuses me. But he's right on the money in this final comment from tonight's show. So let's start here before I talk about the state where I was born, Arizona.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

OK, first point made. I agree. Can we drop this shit already? Godwin's Law covered...now to Fear and Loathing.

I was born in Tucson, Arizona, Pima County nearly 50 years ago. We left when I was just a year old and I've only been back twice since.

I love Arizona. It is breathtakingly beautiful country. Tucson in particular to me because of the Santa Catalina mountains that surround it and the unbelievable cast of light the sun makes when shining through the blue sky and through the wind carved mountains.

My grandmother and grandfather moved there in the late 40s from Waterloo, Iowa for my father's severe asthma. Basically, Arizona saved his life.

My mother's parents moved to Tucson in 1952 from Arcadia, in the Los Angeles area because of my grandfather's job moving them. A new plant apparently for Hughes.

The Santa Catalinas as seen from the University of Arizona in Tucson, my dad's Alma Mater.

Mount Lemmon, where my dad apparently spent many a college night with pals and a case of Coors. In the winter you can ski here and then drive over to Tucson at the bottom where it's 80 degrees.

Arizona was the place to be, the place to go. Jobs were growing, housing was booming. America's fixation with the myth of Cowboys and Indians was building to fever pitch.

Decades later, after we moved to New York City in the early 60s, Arizona began to fall on hard times. Terrible employment, decaying industry as like every where else, jobs moved out of the country. Sure there was the tourist industry and there's a fuck ton of wonderfulness to tour to in Arizona (notice that I haven't even brought up the Grand Canyon), but tourist dollars are never enough.

As I understand it things are starting to pick up a little in Arizona as they are slowly, oh so slowly picking up in the rest of the country. It's still got a ways to go...

So...why has the Arizona legislature created a law that has not only alienated it from so much of the rest of the country, just about the entire Latino population OF that country and threatened it's economy with boycotts?

Fear....and loathing.

Remember the USA Patriot Act? Same thing. U.S. gets attacked. White House and Congress need to look like they are doing SOMEthing...but they have no idea what, so they go with the easy instead of the smart. They are also operating from absolute fear. Fear of attack, fear of losing elections, fear for life of family and nation. Fuck with civil liberties, the Constitution and what we stand for in order to give the illusion that we have taken a major step to solve the problem. Then use the powers given by said act to listen to soldiers having phone sex with their partners overseas.

Now, the AZ legislature follows suit. Only they go even further. Arizona feels attacked. And not entirely without justification. Just over the border is Mexico, a country so thoroughly fucked up that to call it a rogue nation might be a compliment. The government there is dysfunctional. Drug cartels are running everything and so heavily out-arm Mexican law enforcement that they basically run the show....and they are now moving through to the U.S. to kidnap and ransom.

This is not a frequent occurrence, but once is enough.

Clearly we have a problem.

To be sure, illegal immigration has been an issue for a long long time and something needs to be done about it. But it's the Federal government's job as it is an international issue.

I'm not going to get into the inherent racism of the bill. Other's have written and blogged and broadcast about it. I can't add anything that is at all helpful except to say that I agree entirely. And so does the Sheriff of my home county.

Unfortunately he has a good bit of opposition among his constituents, but he's been sheriff of Pima County for 37 years, there must be more they like about him than dislike. But I'm encouraged to know that good men of courage and conviction are in the state to counter the cowardly acts of a legislature that can't function. For now.

There's a lot of bigotry in Arizona, so I expect that idiots who don't learn from history think nothing of having to show papers to police on a whim. MusingMadman (who is covering the outrage end of this argument very well, which is largely why I'm not going into it myself) already had a ridiculous argument with someone using the "If you're a law abiding citizen you have nothing to worry about" argument. I can't even begin to go into how fucking stupid that guy has to be.

Anyway, I happen to like what Lindsay Graham, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman (yeah, I'm liking something LIEberman did...scares me too) are pushing. It's a sensible law that solves the current issue and deals with the issue of those who have been here for a long time with humanity and logic.

Folks against "amnesty" don't like it...but that's idealogical claptrap. This is reality, Greg. (Points if you get the reference) There's just no way to deal with those any other way.

Congress has to act. It hasn't done so for many Administrations both Democratic and Republican. It's time to deal.

And then we have to deal with Mexico. There's a reason there's fence jumping. Mexican life sucks and there are American businesses perfectly willing to hire illegals because they are cheap and easy to control with fear.

We have to take out these drug cartels. We have to examine our own drug laws. Let's face it, the war on drugs isn't working from a law enforcement standpoint and it can't work unless those fuckers are wiped the fuck out. (By the way, guess where the Al Qaeda gets it's money). We have to find a way to help Mexico get it's infrastructure and everything else in gear so that Mexicans are happy in Mexico.

Remember, Canadians aren't jumping the fence to take advantage of our fabulous healthcare system. Maybe we can find a way to get Mexico working. What that is I really don't know. But there are plenty of good minds out there. Let's get to it.

As to Arizona, I have no doubt that this law will be found unconstitutional and the state will bow to economic pressure (as it did when it was a hold out for Martin Luther King Day). But Texas is already talking about similar laws. There's a trend here...the only way to stop the trend is to actually solve the issue. But too, changing demographics will reverse this trend.

On the other hand...I don't have an issue with Mexican drug cartels taking Texas out. Maybe we can let them secede.

Bottom line, I hate that Arizona has brought this nonsense on itself. I want others to love this state as I do. To appreciate it's beauty and potential. That can't happen while idiots, cowards and bigots are running things.