Latimer on Law & Politics

A Geography Question For All You Teabaggers With "Good Taste"

                             A Geography Question For All You Teabaggers With "Good Taste"

"Now, you could argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality way of  life, or cult or whatever you want to call it."  -GOP Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey, Tennessee, on the campaign trail in Chattanooga, July 2010.

 "They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group."  - Bob Shelton, 76, Nashville, TN

            The plans by a Muslim-American group to exercise their constitutional right to build a cultural center a few blocks away from "Ground Zero" in New York City, the site of the former World Trade Center, has been the subject of a great deal of handwringing and teeth gnashing from self-described American "patriots."  They claim it's not about religious bigotry, because it is "insensitive" and in "bad taste" to build a "mosque" on that "hallowed ground," among all the gin joints and strip clubs within a few blocks of Ground Zero.  

             A sudden upwelling of  "good taste" and "sensitivity" in NYC?   Well, okay, maybe  -but  there is also a great deal of handwringing and teeth gnashing from white American "Christians" in Tennessee, about a local Muslim congregation's plan to exercise their constitutional rights by erecting a new mosque, needed to accommodate an increasing membership,  in the Nashville suburb of Murfreesboro.  That's just about  750 miles from "Ground Zero." 

             So, a question of American geography arises in light of this development.  To all you proud Tea Party folks who claim to have such exquisite  good taste in matters of politics and religion, inquiring minds want to know: 

Exactly where, between two blocks and 750 miles from "Ground Zero" in New York, does it stop being about "good taste" and "sensitivity" and start being all about blatant bigotry, militant xenophobia and utter contempt for the Consitutional rights of  Muslim Americans? 

Just askin'.