C'Mon Now!

Are you serious? We are burning books? Serious?

A church in Florida has decided to commemorate 9/11 this year by burning copies of the Koran. They are trying to show radical extremist groups that they are not welcome or going to be tolerated anymore. Or something like that.

BUT they want to make it very clear that this isn't aimed at moderate Muslims because they're cool.

In this day and age, with all the tension between non-Muslim Americans and Muslim Americans, why would one think that burning religious text is okay? Does it matter that they say it's aimed at extremist groups? Would it be okay, then, for a synagogue to go out and burn a bunch of bibles because they think the KKK is evil? If they did, do you think that little church in Florida would take offense, or would they be all right with it?

Right about now, an "inter-faith" committee is meeting to discuss to growing acts of aggression toward Muslim Americans since the "World Trade Center Mosque" hubbub. Maybe they should bring in that Pastor from that little Florida church and tell him he needs to cool it. Things like book burnings are not going to help relationships here.

I've got an idea and you all can let me know what you think, but maybe burning books (like Nazis) is not the best way to commemorate 9/11. Perhaps we should celebrate the lives of those we lost and not instigate more hate in the world, or did we all forget, it was hate which cause 9/11 in the first place.


I now step down from my soap box. Thank you.

Sirens

She lay in bed staring at the craggy wasteland that was her ceiling. It was desolate and barren and it consumed her. It ate her thoughts and kept her awake, ever since she heard the sirens. The only sound she could hear was the blood pumping and pressing past her ear. It's rushing engulfed her senses, ever since she heard the sirens.

Since she heard the sirens, her mind was aflutter. Nothing could stick; each thought skipping cruelly across her mind harassing her. All since she heard the wail of the sirens.

She got up, unable to deal anymore. She strode down the hall as if being chased, desperate. She opened the door, quietly, so she could she her baby. Through the feasting gloom she saw a slight twinkle from her daughter's eyes: desperate for her mother's confidence. She sent a hollow smile through the expanse to her daughter who reciprocated in kind.

Silently she closed the door and turned to head back to her room. She couldn't move. She was frozen, crippled by fear. She knew where it was from. She could feel it in her stomach and her chest. She was absolutely certain, more confident than she had ever been about anything before. No doubt dwelt inside her.

She was certain tonight she became a widow. Ever since she heard the sirens.