Step up, America (and everyone else, too)

All Americans say things with which I disagree. Faisal Abdul Rauf is but one of many of them. Though, generally, I must say, I have much more to praise about this man than disapprove. And, in this matter, he is right. Is the bottom line. There is much for America to learn from this very decent imam.

Ground Zero Mosque Imam: "Had I Known This Would Happen We Would Never Have Done This"

This man is right that the central problem in contemporary politics is not of one group against another. It is not right versus left. Or Christian versus Muslim. Or the West versus the rest.

It is all of us finding the courage. To live our values. To be our best selves. And to stare down the radical impulses among us.

And he is right about the stakes.

Radicals of all stripes - terrorists just being one brutal variation - will only be effectively neutralized when moderates find the strength to tell them to fuck off. And that bullying will not be the way of liberal democratic politics. Which is appropriate since bullying is the opposite of liberal democratic politics. For those who actually care about liberty. Or democracy. Or any of those things we pretend to care about. When we're not pretending to be everything we pretend in our lives.

And for those who genuinely care about people. For real. Of which radicals do not count themselves. And neither should they be counted seriously. In matters of right and wrong, that is. Or anything serious, for that matter.

And all radicals - radicals of the right, and those waging this campaign to move this mosque, in particular and all hateful bullies for purposes of religion or national pride; radicals of the left, and those waging the campaign to stop engaging terrorists and violent fanatics with military force, especially, and all hateful bullies for the purposes of envy and equality or any variation of secular causes; radicals of Islam, terrorists, namely, and all of their cowardly supporters; radicals of Christianity; radicals of Zionism; and radicals of every variation - will only stop dominating contemporary liberal democratic politics and it's infinite illiberal bastardizations when honest people - moderates, we call them - step forward and stop letting these assholes dominate.

And the only way to stop letting radical assholes dominate is to take liberal values seriously. Liberal meaning liberty. Freedom. For the not-such-irredeemable-assholes among us.

And to stop letting radicals bully and manipulate those same not-quite-irredeemable assholes into being much bigger assholes than those still small quiet voices, our more honest consciences, might otherwise suggest.

The assholes, in other words, need to be stared down. Real courage must lead. And cowards follow. And not the other way around.

I am tired of watching bullies and cowards dominate. And the only way for that to change is for rest of us cowards to find the courage to challenge them. And to be bigger than our cowardice might otherwise suggest.

Translation: Step up, America. And everyone else, for that matter. Now is your chance.

If you give a shit about anything that really matters, that is.

Jack says it as well. Perhaps he might help you find the courage. Someone needs to. That's for sure. Perhaps it may just be you.