It's called bigotry

A guest blog by Al Manzano, a writer and former editor who lives In Carlsbad, CA



Remember when the Supreme Court was hearing a case on pornography? One of the justices made a memorable comment. He said that he couldn't define pornography but knew it when he saw it.

The New York City mosque uproar makes me think that while most of us could probably define bigotry we can't seem to recognize it when we see it.

It's a comment on the ridiculous character of our national debates. Our politicians come to it with two minds, one is to capitalize on it as a way to win votes, another is to suggests ways to ameliorate the situation by compromise. They are all simply contributing to an increasing lack of decency and common sense. Sometime in the future we will bow our heads in shame at the way we are being led, confused, and responding.

The mosque is being described at best as an unintended offense to the memory of 9/11.

My memory of 9/11 is of a crime that will never be punished or forgotten. It is at the heart of the problem of victimization and survival: How to rid ourselves of our sorrow, how to get on with life.

I know people with murdered children and for whom there has been no c losure of identification and punishment of the murderers. I don't know how they manage their lives and go on. But they do. No one can really help them in the core of their suffering.

It is a private agony but is can also be a public one. The mass murdering of peoples seem to go on and on. Very few of these events ever lead to effective punishment and never to closure.

It is a matter of continuing sorrow wrapped deep in the need to go on living.

This is what bigots exploit without shame. Politicians are natural cowards. They come away confused by the noisome rants that frighten the unthinking and emotional and fearful of the damage they can impose on our society and values at the ballot box.

The builders of the mosque are being asked to move away from their long chosen and planned site as if somehow they were guilty. It must be confusing for them as free Americans. We have a long tradition of harming our fellow citizens because of who they are and not for what have done. We can't seem to end it.

It's called bigotry.