« It's going to be a | Main | There is not much I »
September 09, 2003
Random rambles for the week...
Random rambles for the week...
1) The Recording Industry (tm) sued 246 file sharers this week - including a TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL - for music theft, blaming file sharing for a massive decline in CD sales since 2000. Memo to the friggin' boneheads running the music industry: You wanna know why sales are way down? Because your product SUCKS right now, that's why. ClearChannel owns every damn radio station in every damn market, and the suits in San Antonio have never understood that music is about feelings and freedom, not market research and science. No matter the market, we know what ClearChannel will force down our throats - the "Mix" station for adult contemporary; the "Z" station for teenyboppers who think Missy Elliott, Ja Rule, Beyonce and Good Charlotte are talented; the "Hot" station that panders to the urban listener; the faux-edgy station that pretends to be an alternative rocker but plays the same payola'd sh... crap; the list is predictable and endless. Worse yet, in every market, the same 20 songs get played over and over and over. Nothing fresh breaks the airwaves. No one gets to hear anything different.
ClearChannel, Cumulus, Infinity, and the other monolithic Big Brothers of the radio industry have KILLED creativity, and that is killing interest. And yet the music industry pathetically goes along with it. Guys, you want to sue someone for your stumbling profits, sue ClearChannel. Knock corporate radio on its ass, instead of kissing its ass, and maybe we'll all start wanting to buy CDs again. Encourage creativity and expression, not mindless mimicry. ClearChannel is the devil, and the music industry suits are apparently too stupid to understand to whom they've sold their souls. Then again, any group that thinks it's going to get good PR and sympathy out of suing 12 year olds for downloading nursery rhymes and television themes, well... must be the same people who think I want to hear anything performed by Black Eyed Peas or 3 Doors Down.
2) I'm as agnostic as they come. I hate religious people who try to force-feed their beliefs down our throats like we were geese in a pate factory. I think that judge in Alabama ought to be permanently disbarred from practicing law anywhere in the Unites States of America. And I think the Constitution ought to be amended to specifically and in writing establish a permanent separation of church and state, so that religious expression and religious zealots and bigots cannot use my tax money or property it paid for to proselytyze me.
All that said... I cannot for the LIFE of me fathom why a group of atheists in New Jersey is suing to keep the piece of the World Trade Center that fell into the shape of a cross out of the permanent 9/11 memorial. That coincidental alignment of metal served as a gathering place at Ground Zero for Sunday masses for the faithful among the rescuers, and brought those who believe a little bit of comfort as they did a horrifically brave job in the weeks following the attacks. The symbolism brought peace of mind to thousands, if not millions who saw the images.
The atheist group says that including the cross beams would make the memorial a religious expression and not a memorial, and would make non-Christians feel excluded. Guys... guys. I'm usually on your side. Manger scenes on public property make me uncomfortable. I squirm at the idea that the US Congress opens each day with a prayer. And I don't want religious expression of ANY kind anywhere near a public school. But this memorial? That cross belongs there, and you're demeaning the entire "separation of church and state" cause with your argument.
September 11, 2001 was one of the worst days in American history, if not THE worst. In the aftermath of the henious attacks brought on by blind religious intolerance, people all across the country were devastated. We all looked for our own things to hold on to during the weeks afterward, our own piece of sanity and comfort that would tell us the world was going to be okay. Every individual reacted differently. Some people took comfort in things that did nothing for others. And that wreckage in the shape of a cross meant so much to so many... it was a life raft when they needed it most, a piece of peace in a violent and horrible time. Whether it brought me any solace at all - or whether it represents anything that ever would - is immaterial; it HELPED people. Doesn't matter if it helped all of them, it helped SOME. And I cannot imagine why anyone would try to keep something that brought someone peace during that time out of the permanent memorial.
Muslim victims died in the 9/11 attacks; if someone put a Qu'ran in the memorial because it gave them peace when thinking of loved ones lost that day, so be it - I have no problem with that. Jews lost their lives that day; if a Star of David were incorporated into the memorial, I have no problem with that. In this one case, I have no problems with any religious artifacts being part of the display. Whether we like it, don't like it, or are equal to it, religion did play a tremendous role in the lives of many of those lost, and in the healing of many of those left behind. To deny the dead that tribute, and to deny the living that comfort, is downright cruel. And no agnostic or atheist should be SO small minded as to behave that way just to salve their petty disagreements with organized religion and its followers.
Save the battles over church and state for the fights that actually matter - keeping religion out of public schools, out of courthouses, out of public policy... and let people grieve and memorialize in whatever way they see fit. New Jersey atheists are imbeciles.
