My friends,

It is true that burning a book of any kind is protected under free speech laws related to the First Amendment. But it is just as true that we don’t have to pay any attention to those who act foolishly, or according to morals to which we disagree. I urge everyone who is opposed to “Burn the Qur’an day” not to watch any videos of book burnings of any kind, even funny ones. If you see one on the news, change the channel. Reinforcing bad behavior begets more bad behavior.

Maybe today should be about the victims of 9/11 – which include every American who was alive and lucent that fateful morning. It was an event that changed the way we saw everything, and traumatized many of us to the point of real anguish and tears.

We all instinctively knew that nothing would ever be quite the same, and were right to think so. Fears articulated on that day that we may have a knee-jerk Orwellian reaction have been realized, and nothing suggests that we’ll go back. Cameras cover most major cities and public areas, satellites watch from above, but even worse, police can now legally enter your house when you’re not home without notifying you, anyone can be lebeled an "enemy combatant" and disappear, and our government saw fit to advocate torture. Such are a few of the visible fruits of Al Qaeda’s labors.

Many of us grew up during the cold war. We were taught in school to “duck and cover”, there were whispers of mushroom clouds and instructions on surviving a nuclear holocaust. For some reason our government couldn’t justify tapping our phones then, even when the Soviets seemed moments away from destroying us all in fits of political rage.

The threat of nuclear annihilation wasn’t enough to make us wait 2 hours in lines at airports, but a few guys with box cutters outsmart us and now we have to pass laws like the USAPATRIOT act? It is shameful to give Osama bin Laden what he wanted, but are we not handing it to him on a silver platter when we restrict our own freedoms and liberties?

What are we doing? What should we really be doing? What has changed since the cold war that we’re so complacent with our liberties? These are timely questions that we can focus on that may have a more productive outcome than debating the morality of burning books or insulting religion, or letting the media dictate our attention. It would be a tragedy if our generation let our fears get in the way of our love and respect for each another, or our American birthright to pass on the world’s last great hope for freedom and liberty.

All the best,

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin ~ February 17, 1775

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Eudaimonia

To desacrate that which is sacred to someone is an act of the deepest insensitivity and arrogance. This can be book burning, blowing up statues, burning places of worship and the like.

This is not the act of a civilised person.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

I agree that the book burning thing is an extremely stupid idea. I thought that when I first heard about it. However, it is a form of freedom of speech and unfortunately books (including whatever bible you want to read) are not covered under flag protection laws. The people of that particular church have every right currently to burn the Qu"ran, so long as they receive the necessary permits and permissions to have the bonfire. Which as far as my knowledge goes, the local government did NOT grant.

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"BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Will he offer me his mouth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his teeth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his jaws? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Again, will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes! GIRL: Yes. BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Yes. BOY: I bet you say that to all the boys!" -Meatloaf

Isn't it a quandary that the burning of any book is in contradiction to the law that permits it.

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Not even the greed of our specie nor any cause but a deity has more often been taken up as the motivation and justification for war by all sides throughout recorded history.

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The excuse, not the reason.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

OldFart, you may be right about that. Sometimes though, it's hard to tell the difference.

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"BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Will he offer me his mouth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his teeth? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his jaws? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes. GIRL: Again, will he offer me his hunger? BOY: Yes! GIRL: Yes. BOY: On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? GIRL: Yes. BOY: I bet you say that to all the boys!" -Meatloaf

It matters not at all. By being able to point to something else – anything else – humans absolve themselves of the responsibility for being the killers.

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Eudaimonia

Yep, it is indeed.