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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: uu who wrote (7023)	10/23/2001 10:52:43 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Addi; Tolerance is one of the important values of the United States. Sometimes it seems to us that there is no other nation on the planet where tolerance is esteemed. People escape here in exile from brutish, violent, intolerant and bigoted countries, and it usually takes a while for American values to sink into them. Sometimes it takes generations, but our values are strong and eventually they win. Our politicians try to pick up votes even from the groups where they know they'll get no more than 5%. The "David Dukes" who try to turn us against each other fail over and over. Our TV shows make fun of intolerance and bigots. The racists are always the villains, and they always lose in the end. Intolerance, like every other human failing, is a natural situation for the human species, but in the United States we do not admire it. That's why we expect our President to preach tolerance barefoot in a mosque. Probably the best symbol of our relationship to the rest of the world is the Statue of Liberty. It's a large statue of a woman holding up a torch. She symbolizes "liberty", the freedom from oppression, and she's located between New York City and New Jersey. Her torch symbolizes the liberty that the United States brings to the world. Every nation has something that they imagine that makes them unique in the world. With the United States, it is our bringing liberty to the world. That was in our example of what liberty would do for people. But the Statue of Liberty has a second meaning. It was placed in New York City at a place (and a time) where immigrants to the United States would see her as they first arrived, and she symbolizes our welcome to those immigrants. Every American is familiar with the inscription on the statue: The New Colossus Emma Lazarus, 1883 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world wide-welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! home.online.no These are the ideals of the United States. Note that her welcome is "world wide". That means we welcome all, and that includes the various religious factions in Iran. This is the place where people come to escape the oppression of the old world. That oppression would not be possible but for the intolerance that the old world not only puts up with, but seems to be proud of. Try to imagine what the bigoted, primitive and violent old world looks like to us. Like any ideal, tolerance is only an ideal, and it isn't achieved in practice. But we do use it to guide what we do. If we are successful in making Afghanistan a healthy and wealthy country (like we did with Japan and Germany) it will be our pride in our tolerance that helps us do it, and like our pride in our assistance to our WW2 enemies, this memory will go into our store of national values and further reinforce our tolerance. Our values are strong, they reside deep inside us, and they are far stronger than the efforts of those would like to convince us that Islam is "satanic". (See your post "Islam has the same message of hatered whether you are an illeterate or if you are a Physics nobel prize winner. And if you do not believe this all you have to do is to read Koran (in your native language that you feel most comfortable with - e.g. English) to understand the satanic hatered it promotes. And that should not require a PHD in rocket science but rather simple ability to read." #reply-16543406 ) We're not a land of Archie Bunkers. We laugh at Archie Bunker because he shows us what we find shameful in ourselves. Our ideals are tolerance and understanding. There are already millions of Moslems in the United States, it's too late for you to convince us that they're satanic. You're wasting your time. All you're doing is convincing us that you're a bigot. It's clear to me that I've read the Koran while you have not, and that you copied your quotes directly from some hate filled anti Islamic web site or post. Heck, you didn't even bother to square up your Koran quotes so that they were in the same format: "al-Ma'idah 5:33" versus "002.191 PICKTHAL" #reply-16543503 This is a mongrel nation. This is the land where the children of Palestinian exiles meet, fall in love with and marry the children of Jewish immigrants. We take the best from every people that comes here, and we both thrive. The real problem that Osama bin Laden has with us is "cultural imperialism". That means that our culture is so attractive that it keeps leaking into the rest of the world. Our values are strong, and they will outlast yours, just as they will outlast the Islamic Fundamentalists. -- Carl