Love is but a song we sing
Fears' the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry

Though the dove is on the wing
And you may not know why

Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now


This is not a political blog. Politics is something that can come between friends. We, as intelligent humans should be able to calmly, rationally debate today's issues. Yesterday on The View two of the host walked off the stage in a huff ( they were back in a minute and a huff but it was still wrong) during what should have been a discussion but became a shouting match. This is why I am taking the time to turn today's post political.

It seems to me that people today believe that if you shout the loudest you are right. The only thing you are doing is being heard over your opponent. If you don't believe that your opponent has a viable point of view, why are you debating them in the first place. Let's go back to
The View, Fox Network's Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor was a guest. The discussion revolved around the building of a Muslim community center and Masque near ground zero in New York City. As the debate became heated, O'Reilly said, "Muslims killed us on 9/11" (notice the quotation marks, I checked four different news sources including Fox, and watched the clip of the show and that is exactly what he said). This is the statement that ignited the walk off. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar stormed off. Behar stated on her other TV show The Joy Behar Show that she considered what O'Reilly said to be "hate speech". O'Reilly, did apologise for leaving out the word "extremest" or "terrorist" but when he got back to his own show he did not back down from what he had said, saying, he did not want to insult Muslims but was, "tired of political correctness surrounding the 9/11 attack". So for me, the biggest question in this whole matter is, why doesn't Whoopi Goldberg have her own show?(Ok, I know, the questions from this debate are easy, does O'Reilly have the right to say what he said and should Muslims have the right to build a mosque anywhere they want. The answer is as simple as black and white [ at this point I think the paper used has turned yellow but the phrase is black and white] yes, to both. Read the Constitution, the Bill of Rights is there for a reason)
This shouting is not something new in our country, a small percentage of society with loud voices getting their own way is as American as apple pie. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, Liquor Abolished. The only amendment to be repealed. Is a perfect example of this, but it did not start there. Let's go back to the Revolution itself. Most of the colonist were happy with the Crown. Maybe happy is not the word, how about content? It's probably apathetic but the loud voices of wealthier colonist pushed and pushed until we found ourselves in a war for independence. Knowing that the same thing could happen to them, they came up with the Constitution and it's Bill of Rights. The hardest thing about being a true American is defending the Constitution. If you believe in free speech then you must defend the right of someone else to say things that you totally disagree with. If you want freedom to pursue your chosen religion you must defend someone else religion. [ grammar police, else, find me the plural possessive form of the word. The Merriam-Webster on line dictionary was of no help. I found contradicting answers so what do you think?]
So let's all stop yelling, let's start talking, let's start to respect each other's opinions and let's start being better Americans. It's not easy but nobody said it would be.
Tomorrow back to the lighter side of things, I promise.