In a few moments I'm going to embed a video that I think every adult (please note I said adult- do not have your children around while viewing this please) should see. There are a few things I love about being a citizen of the US. The biggies are freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Religion is an especially big issue for me. I was raised in a bi-religious household and understand the need for tolerance. You don't need to agree with what I believe in and the same holds true for you and the next person and so on. The right to disagree is a wonderful thing. My dad is Roman Catholic. A very, extremely devout Roman Catholic. My mom is Jewish. My parents have been married for 40 years as of next month. At times I consider that quite a feat considering the times. My parents made the decision to raise me and my sister Catholic. We went to parochial school from kindergarten through our senior year of high school (actually my sister also attended an all girls Catholic university...I couldn't even think about handling another 4 years). I don't know why my parents decided to raise us Catholic....it really doesn't matter. If you want to get technical about it by Jewish law I'm a Jew because my mother is. In some ways my parents covered all their bases in that if we ever wanted to follow my moms religion we didn't need to convert. My parents did celebrate the Jewish holidays with us. When we were each respectively 18 we were told that we were free to pursue what we wanted as far as religion went but if we were living in their house we had to follow an organized religion (a bit overbearing but did you expect more from my parents?). Now I can say that growing up being around 2 very different religions made me have a lot of understanding for those of other religions. 2 of my closest friends are Wiccan. Now the reason I'm sharing all of this is because I think that everyone has the right to what they feel is the correct religion for them. You have the right to practice that religion as you see fit. Within that though you do not have the right to hurt someone because your religion dictates it. In a very round about way I'm trying to say that radical Islamics scare the heck out of me. Do I think Islam is a religion that is fine? Sure as long as you don't think its the only religion that can be on this earth. I will NEVER EVER for as long as I live be able to understand people who think like this:
Something else touched on in this video is Honor killings. Another thing I will never be able to make sense of. If you want to read a very good account of an Honor Killing please read Burned Alive by Souad. I read this book several years ago. It is one of those books that will stay with you forever. A very difficult but good read and is well worth your time.
I'm bringing this up because as the election approaches I think that we really need to pay attention to the policies each candidate as on Israel and Iran. Israel because they are staunch allies and we have always been theirs. I see no reason for that to change. Iran because it seems as though they are a country that has more than its fair share of radical Islamists and they want to go nuclear. Could be a problem.
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