The true of test of whether this country is really the "land of the free" is when we do or do not act like we are the "home of the brave." It is not enough to carry copies of the Constitution and wave them at rallies. The U.S. Constitution lives or dies in the practice of its freedoms for all Americans. That means, all Americans, not just the ones with whom you agree, or with whom you may share a religious belief. We must protect these fundamental liberties especially when it is challenging to do so, or even appears threatening to some.
President Obama, himself a Constitutional lawyer, spoke of religious freedom at the White House dinner honoring the beginning of the Muslim month of fasting and religious renewal, Ramadan. The President said, "Our Founders understood that the best way to honor the place of faith in the lives of our people was to protect their freedom to practice religion. In the Virginia Act of Establishing Religion Freedom, Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion.' The First Amendment of our Constitution established the freedom of religion as the law of the land. And that right has been upheld ever since."
It is crucial that Americans show the world that we have the courage of that conviction, especially when it comes to a plan to build an Islamic Center in lower Manhattan. Religious diversity is, as the President noted, not a national weakness, but "a strength," perhaps moreso when controversial as it is a way, if "we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values" that "we can emerge stronger for it."
If "we can work through these issues," however, is turning out to be a giant "IF." Following the Ramadan dinner address, the President declined, while in Florida, to say whether the current project in lower Manhattan is wise or not. Actually I think that was probably wise on the President's part, since as President he should not be partisan about any individual religious community and a planned project. The President's singular role is to stay true to his oath to uphold the Constitution.
Whether this project is wise, however, is an important question, especially concerning the role of personal grief and the public administration of law. Should the personal grief of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 trump the religiously guaranteed freedoms of the Constitution? Mayor Bloomberg, in his stirring speech on religious freedom, thinks not, even while honoring those who died at the World Trade Center. "The World Trade Center Site will forever hold a special place in our City, in our hearts," the mayor said. "But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves - and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans - if we said 'no' to a mosque in Lower Manhattan."
New York City is the birthplace of many of my immigrant family, and, in truth, the birthplace of the Hungarian side of the family as Americans. I grew up in and around New York City, loving it with all my heart. I still do. I like Chicago, but it is definitely a "second city" to me after New York. One of my sons lives in New York now, and he treats the city as his living room. I heart NY and I always will and I made frantic calls on 9/11 to friends who worked in the World Trade Center. I had to reflect seriously, when there was an attempted car bombing in Times Square, about renewed threats in New York City as my son often bikes and walks through Times Square, as do his young friends.
But love for the city, and compassion for those who lost loved ones, cannot be allowed to shake our nerve as Americans and cause us to back away from our fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. And, indeed, grief from loss, even violent loss, is the experience of many families.
I thought of a story from The Compassionate Buddha that I would teach in a Comparative Religion course. A woman comes to the Buddha, heart-broken. After years of trying to have a child, she had given birth to a son, but the son has suddenly died. The woman beseeches the Buddha to do something to restore her son to life. He tells her to go to every house in the village where there has not been a death in the family and obtain a grain of rice, and then return to him. But as she goes from house to house in the village, and inquires if there has been a death, she hears story after story of heart-breaking loss. She finds no house that death has not visited. She finally returns to the Buddha, wiser than she was before, because she knows that suffering and loss are the way of the world. She still grieves, but she can go on. I am a Christian pastor, but I have learned much about compassion from the teachings of Buddhism.
We must grieve the losses of 9/11, and feel compassion for the families, but we must go on as a nation and have the courage of our convictions. Loss, even sudden, tragic loss from irrational violence is, sad to say, more universal than we would like to believe. We should give compassion to the 9/11 families, but we should, as Mayor Bloomberg so well said, honor them them by acting like Americans, honoring our freedoms, and not letting the terrorists win. "We would betray our values - and play into our enemies' hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that."
"Land of the free, and the home of the brave." Let's have those words guide our action as Americans, and not just be words we sing in our anthem. How about it, America?
Source: Washington Post.
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