Your Smile and Outreached Hand Makes All the Difference

I came across this headline MN Poised to Make History, Send First Muslim American to U.S. Congress through veiled4allah blog where I find her views informative and refreshing.

Keith Ellison said,

â€œI think itâ€™s time for the United States to see a moderate Muslim voice, to see a face of Islam that is just like everybody elseâ€™s face,â€ Ellison said. â€œPerhaps it would be good for somebody who is Muslim to be in Congress, so that Muslims would feel like they are part of the body politic and that other Americans would know that weâ€™re here to make a contribution to this country.â€

I just think Muslims have gotten a bad rap and have become obviously, a scapegoat. The saturation of negative media images is a mile long. Ten miles long. And as a result, anyone with middle eastern heritage seems to get lumped in with that and so have to deal with a special slice of racism directed their way, just for them.

Consequently, keep your Islamic friends in mind--or brown friends who fit the "profile" (because they may not even be Muslim)--and make it very clear you appreciate them. If you don't have friends of this or related heritage, find some.

I remember just after 9/11 an activist friend of mine organized a vigil outside a shop owned by brown-skinned middle-eastern folks. We loved them and knew they were not at fault or connected in any way to 9/11 and wanted to make sure others in the community knew we backed them. Plus keep a watch as a sort of protection. This made a big impression on me.

The first time I had seen this sort of "watch" was at age 17 when I stayed with the Yippies in New York. One of the gals and I were walking her dog late one night and encountered a street arrest in progress. This gal stopped and made it clear we were observing what was going on.

It's time, really time, to be there for each other and notice what groups are getting unduly targeted and speak up, befriend folks and make a difference.

You make a difference in everything you do. You make a difference in the world by the choices you make and in each relationship you put attention on.

YOU DO! Yes, YOU!

Sea Ganschow is Parenting by Connection facilitator, and director of Listening for Change in Portland, Oregon.

Sea's Blog

Bookmark/Search this post with:

Submitted by sea on 6 June 2006 - 1:26pm.

» sea's blog | email this blog | printer friendly version | 1020 reads

Visit our sponsors

culturekitchens

The Publisher
Liza Sabater

Daily servings of political dissent
culturekitchen

Grassroots News and
Activism for New Yorkers
Daily Gotham

Feminist Bloggers
Network
BlogSheroes

A new kind of vouyerism
Voogling

Art + Code + Philosophy
Potatoland.blog

Got any dirt, tips, leads or money for us? Then drop us a line or two at editors [at] culturekitchen [dot] com or use our general contact form to reach everybody in the editorial team ASAP.

Words to live by

"There has never been a just one, never an honorable one - on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful - as usual - will shout for the war. The pulpit will - warily and cautiously - object - at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and here is no necessity for it."

Then the handful will shout louder.

A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you willsee this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers - as earlier - but do not dare to say so.

And now the whole nation - pulpit and all - will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."

— Mark Twain, Heroic American Writer
The Mysterious Stranger :
The Chronicles of Young Satan