Shame on you, Erik Rush: “Muslims are evil. Let’s kill them all.”

You are promoting the environment that creates these tragedies.  Give me a call: I’d love to meet you on skype and talk about how we can do better than ignorance bred of TV-hungry, insecure, un-American aggression.

The Best thing for Corporate-owned News & Money-hungry Blogs without Conscience? As much Terrorism as Possible.

Keep making people afraid!

Why would the media report something as unsubstantiated as: “They have a suspect already… He’s a Saudi“?

NY Post: “Authorities ID person of interest as Saudi national in marathon bombings, under guard at Boston hospital.”

And: “Before anyone had been blamed at all, FOX News Contributor Erik Rush had already tweeted, “Kill All Muslims.”

Likewise, commentators from Breitbart [right wing blog] have already blamed Islam, the Arab Spring, and President Obama for complicity in the attack.” For more.

Lesson of the Day: Race-mongering on the part of the media should not trick us into fear-mongering.

When we hear unsubstantiated “news” via hyped up, crappy media following a tragedy, let’s remember to wait before reacting. Would we want ourselves or our brother or sister to be assumed guilty?

Here’s how we here at elephant—independent media—covered it.

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Judging an entire people? Have we learned nothing?

There was a lot of heart-breaking news, yesterday. Pray for Boston. But there was also a great deal of heart-warming moments, photos, perspective.

Then, there was a dear friend of mine’s status update on Facebook, only a few hours after the explosions:

“I’m gonna say it. Saudi named as a suspect? Big surprise.”

I replied, in honest remonstrance: “Those reports are not substantiated. Let’s wait to confirm. We’ll know soon enough.”

She’s a Jew. I’m half-Jewish. The Jews, of course, were judged as a people to be evil and worthless, infamously, by Hitler and his fellow evil-doers and silent supporters (so were gypsies, intellectuals, homosexuals, artists, and people with developmental disabilities.)

It’s time we learn something: thinking that an entire people is prone to violence is as unacceptable as it is to call blacks “stupid” or whites “assholes” or Jews “money-grubbers” or whatever.

There are millions–not thousands—millions—of peace-cherishing Islamic and Arab and Saudi peoples (btw, Arab and Islamic or Saudi do not mean the same thing). “They”, like “us,” (many of “them” are “us”) love good coffee, good food, a walk after a long day. They have their troubles, they love their children, they love blue sky and green grass and want nothing more than, simply, to be happy.

That there are hate-mongering assholes who would target innocents from any religion, or race, should not teach us that X religion or Y race is evil—it should tell us that we all must go the other direction, and swear off perfection, fundamentalism, self-righteousness, prejudice and extremism.

BTW: a headline from this morning:

“Saudi student questioned by police was not connected to the bombings and has been cleared by the FBI.”

Injured Saudi is a witness, not a suspect, in Boston bombing (washingtonpost.com)

Two more apt headlines from more mindful media, this morning:

“Muslims worldwide have raced to social media websites to pray that perpetrators of a deadly bombing in Boston would not be Muslims.”

“2 men escorted off Boston plane after “concerned marathoners” report them for speaking Arabic.”

Finally, a reminder:

“The inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more. (cheering) The press is our immune system. If it over-reacts to everything, we actually get sicker…and, perhaps eczema.” ~ Jon Stewart

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For more: Boston: Craig Can’t Hide how he Feels & Neither Should We.

Facing Tragedy from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

President Obama on Boston. {Video} “The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight.”

“Love: Patton Oswalt’s perspective on when evil strikes.”

Also: Let us focus on the kindness and humanity and love and heart:

Video: Firsthand account by a Hero of the Boston Marathon Explosions, holding Blood-Stained Flag with shaking hands.

“…the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation…”