Legal Commentary

Bridges

By Kevin Funnell

I was tempted to post my thoughts about how disgusting both sides of the great debate over the mosque/community center near/two blocks from Ground Zero have been, but, then, where would one begin and where would one stop? The intellectual dishonesty on both sides of the issue has been astounding. Well, not actually "astounding," since intellectual dishonesty is the modus operandi of all sides of the political and social spectrum these days. The best comment I heard this week was George Will's on yesterday's This Week on ABC, to the effect that a month from now the American public will wonder what all the noise was about.

The condescension of the supporters of the community center was as amusing as it was annoying. The left always takes the stance that the right is composed of knuckle-draggers and mouth-breathers, because it makes them feel more comfortable with the fact that although they're a small fraction of the populace that surrounds them, they're "superior" in oh-so-many ways. As C.S. Lewis once observed, there's likely a special place in hell for those who feel they're a cut above the common man.

Strangely (or perhaps, not so strangely), in the course of this week I also thought of the reverse condescension that once assaulted Mary Chapin Carpenter when she first burst on the country music scene many years ago. The purists could never accept the fact that a graduate of an Ivy League school like Brown could feel and express the deep thoughts and feelings of the rest of us riff-raff. The irony of that reaction to Ms. Carpenter made me take her to heart right from the get-go.

When we should be building bridges, we build walls. We're all fools. Every damn single one of us.

Truth is truth, and no one has a monopoly on truth save God.

I'm not running
I'm not hiding
I'm not reaching
I'm just resting in the arms of the great wide open
Gonna pull my soul in
And I'm almost home

Full post as published by Counseling Kevin on August 24, 2010 (boomark / email).