It's been disturbing to see an insignificant pastor in Florida, the head of a church of no stature, holding the nation and media hostage with his threat of a big Koran bonfire. Is it now that easy for anyone to command the attention of the world and to do something that will change world opinion of America? If I get fifty friends together and threaten to torch someone else's holy books, do I get that much airtime and calls from important people? Wow.
I just saw our president's news conference in which he repeated the points that the proposed conflagration is (a) not what America is all about and (b) likely to endanger our troops. Both are valid but I wish he'd put a little more emphasis on (a) than (b). And of course, the big trouble with all this is that it is presently U.S. policy — started by Bush, continued by Obama and pretty much the last remaining justification for the Iraq War — that we are now trying to reach out to peaceful, reasonable Muslims. Burning their holy volumes and promoting Islamophobia might not be the best way to accomplish this.
And I find myself concurring with Glenn Greenwald that there's something amiss when we warn that this one wacko padre may wind up with blood on his hands but give a pass to so many who are dripping red and white corpuscles. We have this odd selective outrage in this country. It's been more than five years since the most important thing to some was that the heart of a woman named Terri Schiavo keep beating. How many other Terri Schiavos have died since then in like scenarios (or because they didn't have decent insurance) without any of those folks caring in the least?