Big excitement in the news today as Colin Powell comes out in favor of Obama. Some say it's about race, others that it's retaliation for the way the Bush administration treated Powell when he was serving. There's only one person who knows for sure, and he's not saying. What struck me was not so much the endorsement, but one of the statements he made at the same time:
"Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time, and he managed to sum it up in such a clear and precise way. I do believe we are engaging in a double standard when we say that it is not okay to paint all Christians, Jews, or Buddhists with the same brush, but we can and should do this with Muslims. Either we have religious tolerance in the United States or we do not. What is one of the best ways to ensure this essential tolerance? A true separation of church and state.
1 comment:
I am so impressed with Powell for having the guts to do this.
I have always said, he is the one Republican I would be tempted to cross party lines and vote for if he ever ran for President (depending on who he was running against).
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