Juan Williams and NPR

I rarely comment on politically-charged events in the media.

However, the firing of Juan Williams from NPR for his comments is disrupting me.  Click here for a description of why his comments about seeing Muslims on aircraft and how they make him nervous got him fired.

It is important that we NOT assume every Muslim is out to kill people. There are radical Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists and everything else.  Craziness doesn’t have a preferred creed.

HOWEVER ...

The media keeps drilling us that Muslims are the key problem (whether accurate or not).

Public transit (subways, trains, ferries, airlines, etc.) have signs plastered everywhere reminding us to be aware of suspicious activity and to report it immediately.

Intelligence sources keep telling us of things that have been averted but can't tell us what for national security reasons.
We are constantly reminded that the next big event is a "when" and not an "if".

So we are called to keep our diligence high but are left in the dark about what we should be diligent about.

So when Williams says how he looks out for trouble, in essence what his best interpretation is of all of this information, he is fired.

If we can be punished for guessing based on the enormous crush of innuendo and vague information, then PLEASE help us to help you by telling us:

WHAT TROUBLE DO WE LOOK FOR?

WHO DO WE LOOK FOR IT IN?

Don't make people guess and then punish them for expressing how they do it based on the heavy crush of vague, fear-spreading information that flows daily.

And don’t punish people for exercising their right to free speech.  Isn’t this a foundational element of the great United States of America?

Otherwise, this just keeps everyone off balance.

But then again maybe that's the intention.

The question would then be ….

Why?

In service and servanthood.

Harry

For my detailed version about “Juan Williams and NPR”, please click here.