Mark My Words - commentary on news, politics, religion, philosophy, science and social issues

Northwest Indiana had some controversy brewing the last few days over a story that the owner of a Crown Point Dunkin' Donuts had refused to serve a U.S. serviceman. According to the account, going around by email, the owner had refused the soldier for, as he said, "killing my countrymen."

One problem, the story appears to be only an urban legend, as the following reveals:

The e-mail blasted into cyberspace under the patriotic heading, "Americanism," followed by red, white and untrue allegations against a foreign-born business owner who refused to serve a local soldier for "killing my countrymen."

As is typical in such cases, the good news, that this didn't happen, is very much overshadowed by the bad news. People having threatened to boycott, some have told customers they should leave. Even worse, threats of violence had been made against the store.

The editorial spends a good deal of time criticizing those who jumped to believing the store owner was guilty, as the story claimed.

Sure it's easy to blame Templin, Roth and anyone else who allowed "lunchroom chatter" to inflame our racism, and also to singe a local business owner.
But blame isn't enough here.
Shame on those of us who blindly believed the e-mail's content. And shame on those of us who stupidly forwarded it. But more importantly, shame on those of us who wanted so badly to believe it to be true.
This shouldn't be what "Americanism" is all about. (source)

While criticism is deserved, unfortunately there is a group that is not held to account in the editorial. Of course there are some, and far too many, who assume such a story is true, simply because the individual is not "American", some drawing that conclusion based on color and accent alone, but others may have believed for another reason. It's not always about racism, whether unrealized or gleefully practiced.

This story and others like it, occur in an environment where some Americans, pale as can be and/or with non-foreigner accented English, feel free to speak of this country and our troops in just as hateful a fashion as alleged in the Dunkin' Donuts story. Democrat Congressman John Murtha may not have refused donut service to any troops, but he did accuse them of murdering civilians, before they had been convicted in trial. As it turns out, charges against several marines have been dropped. Will Democrat Congressman John Murtha apologize?

Such foolishness was sadly no exception when one considers the extreme left. Another instance would be Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. His addition to this hateful view of our troops was to compare them to the Nazis and Pol Pot. His "apology" doing little to nothing to erase the propaganda sound bite he freely gave to our enemy.

Another example would be Democrat Senator Barack Obama, likening our strategy in Afghanistan to just bombing villages and killing civilians. We support the troops... rings rather hollow when such words stumble out of the mouth at other times.

The list goes on and includes some of Hollywood's elite. The most recent and obvious being Brian De Palma making a movie that, according to his own statements, is intended to make our troops look bad.

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

[...]

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.
"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said. (source thanks to Libertas)

Is it too much to ask that this reality also include the terrorists who brutally behead innocents? Or that those troops have been tried and convicted and that their terrible actions are not the norm? And what of the horrible reality that will follow should De Palma succeed and we withdraw from Iraq before we've finished the job?

Is it any wonder that in such a climate some, who are not racist, would easily believe a story wherein someone refuses serving our troops because they're killing his people? After all, elected officials and Hollywood glitterati have nearly said the same and you're not supposed to question their patriotism for doing so.

This doesn't mean that racists have no great shame to accept, or that whoever originated the lie has no responsibility to bear. Those who didn't at least check the matter out before doing a copy/paste to their email list, share at least some of this disgrace as well. However, the extreme left or any other extreme that speaks against our troops in similar fashion, likewise have much guilt to bear.

When an environment exists where some of our politicians or pop stars will say vile things about our soldiers, and during a time of war, why should one be surprised or skeptical when it's said that someone else expressed similar sentiments? Certainly there is enough shame to go around to include those who actively, with forethought or simply foolishness, work to create the very ground where such false stories can easily be seen to have taken root.

---

Filed under: OurSoldiers -- News -- Iraq -- Culture

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, Right Truth, Big Dog's Weblog, Shadowscope, DragonLady's World, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, Stageleft, Pursuing Holiness, Right Celebrity, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The Uncooperative Radio Show!, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam's Blog, Inside the Northwest Territory, Nuke's News & Views, , Webloggin, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck's Constant, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, CORSARI D'ITALIA, High Desert Wanderer, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.