[Groop]OT-Nigeria

[Chris Schechner]

Amen!

>I'm sure it was money, Larry.  It's almost always money.  The pageant
>committee didn't just wake up one day and decide to hold the thing in
>Nigeria.  Some business person or group in Nigeria bid for or paid for or in
>some other way enticed the pageant to come to Nigeria.
>
>Intolerance of other ideas, religions, people, whatever has been used as an
>excuse to kill people for 1000's of years with unfortunately no end in
>sight.  And religious intolerance is the most insidious because it allows
>people to claim they have no choice because they are doing God's will.
>That's why secular republics have the best chance of keeping intolerance
>under control or at least ultimately effecting some change.
>
>But it's no guarentee.  It's been less than 50 years in this country since
>it was perfectly acceptable in some parts of the country to kill black
>people who "didn't know their place" and racisim is still pervasive
>throughout the country in various forms.  It's been only a few more years
>since the whole world turned the other way while Hitler exterminated half
>the Jews on the planet.  (World War II was not fought to save the Jews.
>That was an unintended by product.) And don't think for a minute that Jerry
>Falwell and Pat Robertson wouldn't lock up every gay person in the country
>if they were in charge. And now there's a slice of the population that
>thinks they have an excuse to hate all arabs and/or Moslems.
>
>So while the combination of stupidity and intolerance that lead to 200
>deaths in Nigeria was horrible and should be condemned, Americans need to
>spend more energy doing everything they can to keep their own house in order
>and not let our own intolerance, misunderstanding, and fear lead us to doing
>things as a nation that our children and grand children will be ashamed of.
>Uncharacteristically yours, -Gary G.