Notable quotable. This bears repeating.
Posted on 4/22/2003, 1:32:53 PM by new cruelty
You just have to know that the Left has gone off the deep end when they start to complain and ridicule the Pentagon and conservatives because they had Christians as guest speakers at a Good Friday ceremony. Honestly.
Pulitzer Prize winning “journalist” Maureen Dowd in her April 20th article entitled “A Tale of Two Fridays,” in the New York Times thought it was “pandering” and culturally “insensitive” to have Franklyn Graham and presumably other Christians espousing Christianity at a Good Friday service.
Apparently, Maureen is now the spokesperson for the well over one billion Muslims in the world and declared, “Muslims suspicious that America is on a crusade against Islam were inflamed to learn that Mr. Graham is taking his missionary act to Iraq.” She also decided that Christians who are bringing food and other aid are simply doing so to hoodwink the Iraqi and other Middle Easterner’s to convert them, “Workers from Mr. Graham's Christian relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, were in Jordan, waiting to inveigle Iraqi infidels with a blend of kitchen pantry and Elmer Gantry.”
Basically, Maureen wants to ensure that folks of different religions in countries other than the United States are not offended by American Christians during Easter. She especially dislikes the idea that people who provide food, medicine and other aid to people in the Middle East, not proselytize. In some Middle Eastern countries, as was true in Afghanistan under the Taliban, proselytizing was a crime punishable by death.
It may be that dear Maureen is simply looking out for the well-being of the aid workers and doesn’t want to see them hung from a lamppost for attempting to practice or teach Christianity or she ascribes to the notion that such acts are rightfully punished by the host countries and is warning them. Maybe she just figures that the “peasants” in the Middle East are primitives that will simply be unable to withstand the onslaught of the new “Crusaders” who bring ideas and food and being a good Liberal, thinks that would be unfair.
In any case, and unlike Maureen’s notions, the people of Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations are no doubt quite capable of fending for themselves and just like the rest of us on weekend mornings, get to tell the people at our front door who want to read the Bible to us, thank you or no thank you, depending upon our interest. Ms. Dowd would prefer we all listen to her and know in our heart of hearts, that unlike the evangelicals, she is looking out for all our best interests. We simply need to listen to her teachings because we are incapable of knowing what is right all by ourselves.
The Left, with Maureen as one of their standard bearers always seems to know what is right and what is wrong, yet they want us to believe that right and wrong are relative concepts.
It is “wrong” to tell others about religion if it is Christianity or Judaism as that is imposing yourself on others. Yet, some people who blow themselves up and kill innocent women and children are not murderers or terrorists for their actions, after all, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”
Maureen never seems shy about issues she holds near and dear to her heart, like damning religion or religious figures. Islam, for Maureen is made up of weak minded folks who will sell their soul for an extra blanket or a pound of coffee. Christians and Jews are made up of people who give aid with the intent of exploiting the masses without compassion. Aid workers simply use the pretense of feeding the hungry or treating the sick to convert the “infidels.” For Maureen and her ilk, simply doing good is a concept beyond their comprehension.
What is more interesting is the willingness of the Left to eliminate overall good in the event they see an improper motive. In other words, for Maureen and the Left, they would rather see people starve than be fed, if there was a chance that some of those kept from starvation would be intrigued by a different religion. For the Left, their ulterior motives are their driving force, their raison d’etre.
The Left refuses to accept that the people of Iraq are better off being liberated from Saddam Hussein. Visions of Iraqis waving the American flag and thanking President Bush for giving them freedom are lost on the Left. Instead, the Left wants to talk about occupation, rebuilding contracts and some Imam’s request that America leave Iraq as soon as possible. The Left would rather 25 million Iraqis remain oppressed and brutalized if to free them elevated the Republican Party, George Bush and the United States.
Maureen Dowd sees terrible things coming out of Iraq’s liberation. “Conservatives should worry about their own self-parody: pandering to the base by blessing evangelical Christians who want to proselytize Muslims; protecting their interests by backing a shady expat puppet; pleasing their contributors by pre-emptively awarding rebuilding contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel; and swaggering like Goths as Iraq's cultural heritage goes up in flames. Maureen opines further, “Isn't this how Osama got started?”
For the Left, for Maureen Dowd, they see evil and they want to prevent its spread and continue to warn us about its coming. For the rest of us, we also see evil, its just we see it coming from a different place.
Paul Walfield is a freelance writer and member of the State Bar of California with an undergraduate degree in Psychology and post-graduate study in behavioral and analytical psychology. He resided for a number of years in the small town of Houlton, Maine and is now a California attorney. Paul can be contacted at paul.walfield@cox.net
Notable quotable. This bears repeating.
I wonder what she finds to be good?
Cut her some slack.
Maureen doing her Jesse Jackson schtick.
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