Astonished, But Not Surprised

The above video was sent to me by a loved one, headlined with a quote from the video: "Is it possible to be astonished, but not surprised?" With so many Americans inflamed by an controversy any child with a cursory understanding of our Constitution could resolve definitively, I might ask the same thing.

To me, there is only one response:

He's wrong. The question isn't whether the Cordoba Center is in "good taste," or if allowing it to exist is somehow "pandering"; the only question is, do we or do we not stand behind our Bill of Rights? If we do, we must accept that we will sometimes find the ways our fellow Americans choose to exercise those rights upsetting, offensive or distasteful. And registering our displeasure about that is another freedom afforded us by that same Bill of Rights.

As a proud and patriotic American, I'm not willing to allow any religion, philosophy or popular movement to subvert that excellent document—directly or indirectly—by dictating which specific Americans those freedoms should or should not be guaranteed to. Bow to those pressures, and our freedoms lose all meaning.


© 2010 Wyatt Doyle