THURSDAY
passing of the guard
coretta graduated
ive lost respect for the king family
hate to see the last of the strong generation go
WEDNESDAY
jihad/crusade this
you know i was being all astounded that the islamic
world was so up in arms about the danish paper
printing the satires of muhammad
was thinking you cant tell folk they cant print a political cartoon
spoofing the prophet (on penalty of death)
then i thought how blackfolk got up in arms about menim penquin
and if we had had the power we would have chastised mexico too
and wondered if there was any difference in those two sensibilities
some folk were just as perplexed about us jumping up and down
decided the religious factor made the difference
if we commence to jumping up and down everytime somebody denigrate
african religion we wouldnt have time to do nothing else
and we werent saying it was blasphemy, just insensitive
didnt threaten to kill nobody behind it neither
so i gave us a pass but still it raised some interesting issues
i will accept that publishing them was in bad taste
but thats kinda the nature of political cartoonists, to push the envelop
the rightwing been up in arms about a recent tom toles cartoon of a quadruple amputee soldier being called 'battle hardened' by rumsfield
and it was clearly a matter of that cartoon hitting a little too close to home on them
as an artist its hard for me to accept fundamentalist restraints of any sort, i accept provocation as artistic inclination and i have to accept these cartoons the way i accepted (supported) rushdies right to write satanic verses w/o being fatwahed
but then you had the hutu broadcasters during the rwandan genocide
do i support their freedom of speech, i tell you its tricky
and now some iranian paper has announced a contest for holocaust cartoons
but thats the way it goes, play and counterplay
i guess its people dying i guess that makes the difference for me
i dont see where it ever has to get to that, of course i realize it often does
but thats not the world im trying to build
but this little to do is indicative of just how serious this conflict is
and why we need a real president instead of these bumbling incompetents
we are in a very delicate moment in time and we need sophisticated players at the helm
according to a saudi blogger, the religious policeman, the west is at a disadvantage in this conflict
says this "illustrates how successful we have been over the years in getting them to accept the "Principle of Asymmetry". In other words, we use their sense of "fair play", "multiculturalism", "democratic values", and of course their guilt feelings, against them, so that they restrict their own freedom of action, but are very lax when dealing with the Muslim, for fear of offense or violent reaction. This of course confuses and demoralizes the ordinary person-in-the-street, and weakens their resistance to the onward march of the Ummah"
i have worked this post over many times specially since its getting hits
still not comfortable with it and wonder if its reactionary but i dont think so
i think this west/islam thing has gotten mighty tricky and i got to call it like i see it
while aspiring to dialogue and mutual evolutionary agreement
i am concerned about the dynamics of relatively open societies under assault
by relatively closed ones, the open society is at a disadvantage in this dynamic
in scifi the open society always wins, in real life im not sure
and i spec you know all that submission dont fly w/me
i man free man
i hunted down the muhammad cartoons online cause i wanted to see what the fuss
was about but im not putting them up - not my battle and im not willing to
pay the freight - dont want nobody trying to make they virgins off me
ie i would be afraid to do so and cannot tell you how much that shames me
apparently the point of banning images is so as not to deify the prophet
if so, the ban does not appear to have been successful
apparently the original series was very much
in your face and we see where that got them
may have been legit but it wasnt smart
specially when they previously turned down spoofs on jesus
as too inflammatory
apparently danish imans and islamists with agendas have fanned the flames
and now people dying
i want to wash my hands of both sides but it does not seem possible at this point
and i have to say im tired of fundamentalists
imposing their dogmas on the rest of us
our homegrown christian fundamentalists been howling about us
respecting their dogmas too - demanding we live by their rules
i dont try to force other folk to live by my spiritual rules
why should i be forced to live by theirs (specially under threat of mortal sanction)
if anything our homegrown fundamentalists frighten me more
with their ever tightening noose of christian sharia more and more
imposed on the rest of us
you might say it could never happen here but i would have said that
about a lot of what the bush admin has wrought (incl torture as policy)
its one thing sneering at creationism/intelligent design/whatever
its entirely another when we got kids dying in iraq on
halfbaked crusades
and backroom abortion tables
(somehow the rightwing has just taken over - we woke up
one morning to find we had given our souls and our country to the devil)
and truth be told i dont think that much of atr fundamentalists either
all that bloodly sacrifice and all them dead animals really aint necessary
buncha archaic bullshit left over from the stoneages, bout time for yall to grow up
or black radical fundamentalists with their holier than thou
apocalyptic sense of struggle that dismiss all other activists/strategies as
not revolutionary enough - listen to them and we cant do nothing but be mad
all these fundamentalists
can go to hell
(that line felt good to me as an endnote but i dont want to leave it on that note
too. . well. .fundamentalist)
suffice it to say
this west/islam conflict has gotten very tricky
i have read articles in the islamic press that express the
same fear/threat for their livestyles/cultures that i feel for mine
we got to find some common ground
somewhere the bushs and binladens of the world cant touch us
i do believe the west got to put its guard up on this one
i do not want to live in the facist reality radical islam wants to impose on the world
at the sametime i recognize the islamic world in the house
im willing work with it but i aint willing to submit to it
i appeal to the muslim community
live and let live
rein in your maddogs and i will
rein in mine
word by
rickydoc trickmaster
wouldbe prophet of the hoodoo way
(and never i hope the point of such murderous deification)
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