Multiculturalism In America (Part 2)

By: D. DiFrancesco

I read a blog post recently that stated that the ideas of multiculturalism and diversity were insanities propagated by “leftist” elites to the detriment of America, I’m paraphrasing of course though my statement accurately represents what was written. I came away from the post a bit taken back for I thought that it was completely off the mark..

I propose that the statement that multiculturalism and diversity are "insanities" is elitist in and of itself.  

What we are doing as a nation is denigrating and minimizing others that look, think and worship differently than we do. We have done this before in our history and as with most things in history we are destined to repeat them. By putting all Muslims collectively, whether good or bad in one basket, we are doing those of the Muslim faith a tremendous disservice as well as ourselves. Unfortunately we seem to be so damned righteous in our own self-importance that as a nation we don't care how we treat or are viewed by others.

I have to wonder how this is helpful in nurturing peace, understanding and cooperation with others around the world?  Not surprisingly we don't live in a bubble as much as some wish that we did. Essentially what we are saying to them is that your way of life is meaningless to us and we as a people are better than you.  

Our presidential candidates, especially on the right, have been trying to convince the American people that it is Christian America against all of Islam, this sounds an awful lot like The Crusades to me without anyone coming out and saying it.  Christianity made Islam its mortal enemy in the dark ages and now much like the Europeans of that time, we are looking to destroy them by taking their countries, their natural resources and their pride and for what...profit just as it has always been.  There is almost nothing we do anymore where there is not some kind of profit motive.

I don't have my head in the sand and I'm not ignorant to the fact that there are some who follow a

twisted interpretation of the Muslim faith that want to kill us, but I think the greater danger is that we are being played by both our politicians and our enemies.  I ask: what is the definition of terror...it is "extreme fear" and what is the goal of the terrorist, but to use terror in the pursuit of political aims.  Both our politicians and the terrorists are giving those in power license to take away our freedoms; i.e. the Patriot Act and as a result we have willingly given away our right to privacy all for the promise of safety and security.

Guess what, in life no one can guarantee that, not you, not me and certainly not the U.S. government. And the terrorists, what did they win?  By getting us to change our way of life, they are slowly toppling this once "greatest" nation.  The more freedoms we give away by allowing ourselves to be terrorized, the less we become in the eyes of the world.  Diminishing our influence and minimizing us is likely the ultimate goal of ISIS and others of their ilk, giving them free reign to continue their quest for power.

Multiculturalism and diversity are not to blame for our problems nor do I believe that they are elitist principles, what I do believe however, is that we are to blame for our problems.  Lately we seem to be placing blame on everyone but ourselves.  If it isn't Islam, it is the Mexican people.  I wonder who will be next on our "hit list".  Who won't be blamed is easier to define and my bet, if I were a betting man, is that it won't be us.

This leaves me with only one conclusion, that the losers in this fight between the U.S. and Islam and the premises of multiculturalism and diversity is you and me...the American people.

Thoughts On The December 15, 2015 Republican Debate

By D. DiFrancesco

Although I could only bare to listen to about an hour of the debates last night I came away with a very clear picture of what the republican candidates are offering the American people and that is continued war and ramped up hate and racism.

Wow, these sound like promises that just call me to vote for them...not!  Each one of the candidate is a meaner and nastier war monger than the next rival and I just don’t understand it.  As I see it the Republican Party, over the last bunch of election cycles, has run on platforms of fear and war, they have not offered any solutions nor have they justified why war will solve our problems.  Isn’t war how we got into this mess in the first place.  Clearly they have learned nothing as the perpetuation of war is their solution to everything.

Perhaps new strategies are in order instead of the same-old-same-old.  This morning while listening to the radio show “The Agenda with Ari Rabin-Hovt” on SiriusXM, Ari came up with a great point that I

ISIL in Iraq
Image: besacenter.org

wholeheartedly agree with.  He correctly stated that Congress has the authority, as granted by the United States Constitution article 1, section 8, clause 11, to declare war.  As the republicans have control of both houses of Congress, why don’t they just declare war against ISIS and all 1.6 billion Muslims, since they seem to have some general vendetta against them anyway and be done with it. This way they can stop bitching and moaning that President Obama is not doing enough to combat our perceived threats.  My guess is that this will never happen as it would put as least some responsibility on them for our actions.

Please don’t assume that this is my preferred stance on matters of national security or foreign policy, in my view war is not the answer.  I don’t believe that the American military is designed to be able to effectively wage war against unconventional, un-uniformed combatants.  How do you identify them

Senator Ted Cruz
Image: crooksandliars.com

without inflicting an untold numbers of civilian casualties, I don’t think that you can.  This however, is not what some of our Republican candidates believe.  Take Ted Cruz for example, he has been touting carpet bombing as a way of destroying ISIS.  I guess this is because he doesn’t know if “sand can glow”, his words not mine, but clearly he would like to find out.  That is all well and good if ISIS would be the only casualty of this kind of action, but unfortunately that would not be the case and would likely result in nothing more than the further recruitment of new and more dangerous terrorists.  

My firm belief is that a profound change in our foreign policy practices would do far more to stem the the long term attraction of terrorism than military solutions alone ever would.  

First, if we would stop assuming that every nation on earth is ready and willing to embrace democracy we would be so much better off.  Democracy is an alien concept to much of this world.  It is something that must be accepted gradually and called for by the people, not thrust upon them by some foreign power.  

Lastly, deposing rulers of foreign governments and / or installing American chosen puppets has got to stop. This has failed us time-and-again and circled around to bite us in the you know what.  Perhaps there are times where we just need to let things be for stability's sake.  Middle Eastern cultures are very old and very different from our own and therefore need to progress at their own pace and on their own path.

Maybe someday we will learn though I hope it is not the hard way.