Wicker Man

April 29, 2008

Jerimiah Wright goes on the Bill Moyers show to explain himself more fully and with full context, then gives a few more interviews. The result: he gets accused by some on the left of being vain and publicity-grasping. Meanwhile, others say Wright believes there are neurological differences between black people and white people because Wright says their cultures are different, a provocative and unwarranted extrapolation.

A judge acquits police of killing an unarmed man and injuring two others in a hail of gunfire. Al Sharpton holds a protest rally, which strikes me as a perfectly reasonable thing to do even if it is Al Sharpton. Michelle Malkin calls it a “Kill the Police” rally because that’s what a couple of people yelled.

A moderate Muslim educator who dreamed of starting a school where children could learn Arabic and be prepared for diplomatic service — something we desperately need, by the way — is instead forced into retirement by a pressure campaign and media happy to distort what she says into things that sound like radical conservative Islam.

Ms. Almontaser, a teacher by training and an activist who had carefully built ties with Christians and Jews, said she was forced to resign by the mayor’s office following a campaign that pitted her against a chorus of critics who claimed she had a militant Islamic agenda.

In newspaper articles and Internet postings, on television and talk radio, Ms. Almontaser was branded a “radical,” a “jihadist” and a “9/11 denier.” She stood accused of harboring unpatriotic leanings and of secretly planning to proselytize her students. Despite Ms. Almontaser’s longstanding reputation as a Muslim moderate, her critics quickly succeeded in recasting her image.

Yesterday I watched Hans Roslings’s 2006 TED talk where he demonstrates how access to data combined with excellent data visualization techniques can show us some really startling facts, shattering our preconceived notions and leading to smarter, more effective policy and planning.

But that relies on people of good faith getting together to look at what’s around us and making consensual decisions.

But our media and discourse right now is looking for the next five minutes of hate. People don’t listen to what you say; they take a small piece of what you say, wrap odious new straw-man arguments around it, then start a grand public-square bonfire of you. It’s happened to Obama, Wright, Sharpton, Almontaser, both Clintons, Gore, Kerry. Dozens of other people. Over and over again.

Who will be next week’s Wicker Man? I’m not sure I want to know.

Posted in Politics