48 Comments - Mary Fioretti - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 6:49 am: Intollerance is ignorance. - amalia - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:11 am: grossly wrong to even treat anyone badly because of who they are, let alone violence. I have a couple of Iraqi and Palestinian Christians in my circle of friends and they often feel invisible. of course, I go all the other way….they make me feel closer to the early days of my religion. makes me want them to stay very safe. your wife too. - beserkr29 - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:17 am: This kind of thing is beyond terrifying. What goes through your mind to think, while simply sitting on a bench next to someone who looks different from you, “attacking this person who’s literally not doing a thing is the best idea I’ve ever had!”? Nothing justifies an act like this. Incredibly scary thing to have happen. - Pat Collins - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:24 am: Does anyone think maybe that guy has mental issues? And it was going to be something that set him off, eventually? - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:36 am: PC, mental issues or not, it’s still a very worrying event for people like myself. And that’s the point of this post. - hisgirlfriday - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:39 am: This is very disturbing, Rich. When I saw this I immediately thought of an old college friend who still lives in C-U and is a Muslim woman who wears hijab and whose family immigrated to the C-U community from the Middle East when she was a child. Here’s hoping the professor makes a full and quick recovery. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 7:56 am: There are 1.57 billion Muslims in the world. About 20% are from Arab countries. Yet in some ignorant minds, they, or anyone who looks like “them,” have to wear the jacket for a couple of thousand bandits. That ain’t what “your country” is all about. - KurtInSpringfield - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 8:01 am: Rich, I can understand your concern. People can be consumed and short-sighted when it comes to prejudices. I, personally, have known for quite some time that 1.) There are Arab Christians from and living in the Middle East. 2.) In many of those countries the Christian presence has been around longer than than Islam. 3.) The Christians from those countries are, in many cases, severely persecuted. I pray that God would provide his protection for your wife and her family, especially those that might still be living in the middle east. - Way South of the Border - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 8:41 am: In diverse circles I am amazed and dismayed by a common thread: I’ve heard graduate students at elite schools, good old boys in the Southern Five and PTO parents in the suburbs rant about being offended when they hear someone speak in a foreign language within earshot. They can’t all be mentally ill. That this childish, self-centered and — as this story shows — dangerous attitude is so common in our country, well it is chilling. So moving from problem to solution, here are three things: 1. As individuals: When we hear these attitudes we must speak up. I try to be nice, because the point is to move people away from bigotry and you catch more flies with honey, etc. 2. As advocates: The diversity training industry, which has a fairly lucrative but limited role in these issues, needs to bring its skills and tools to the larger conversation, beyond the confines of its corporate and government contracts. 3. As teachers: When my kids are in close vicinity to public conversations in other languages (on the train, in the park, etc.) and want to know what is going on, I teach them to listen for tonal qualities, gestures and other cues to figure out what the conversation is about: Is the speaker telling a story? Explaining something? Arguing? Figuring out directions? Make it fun. Personally practice and teach kids to be curious about the wider world, rather than offended because it isn’t spoon fed to us. - Way Way Down Here - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 8:42 am: Quick to judge Quick to anger Slow to understand Ignorance and prejudice And fear walk hand in hand… Rush circa 1982 - zatoichi - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:00 am: Every society has people whose actions often make no sense. It may have roots in a philosophy, anger, culture, mental illness, or any other base you care to pick. My dad always said ‘People do stoopid things and stuff happens’. Why? Who knows sometimes. Without going totally P.K.Dick, a little paranoia about the behavior of others is not a bad thing. How do you explain senseless events like this or yesterday’s shooting at VT? You cannot let it consume you. There are many more good things going on at the same time. - Scott3491 - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:07 am: The accused has recent meth charges against him: - Cincinnatus - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:14 am: I have always felt that a perverse outcome of our well intentioned efforts to promote “diversity” have had the exact opposite effect. At one time, everyone would have felt part of a common culture, and events like this would be minimized. I remember growing up in a 5-flat in Chicago. My grandfather demanded we all speak English and assimilate into the American culture, to the point where I understand not a word of Italian even though that is all the old make could speak. Now I am afraid that we have wedged groups apart instead of brought them together, as each “minority” feels they are being excluded, instead of included. You are right to be concerned, Rich. I smell unintended consequences from 40 years of “diversity” brainwashing. It has nothing to do with your wife, a wonderful person I’m sure since she puts up with you. - Sunshine - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:18 am: As a nation we are not of one race, creed, or color. In the minds of some we are only what they think we should be. Likely that will never change. Slowly, ever so slowly we will change, but not until the news media stops labeling us, and pointing out our differences; When they start recognizing and focusing on those things we all have in common, the common good, perhaps then things will mellow a bit. - Bemused - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:19 am: Hey little boy you can’t go where the others go cause you don’t look like they do. Hey old man how can you stand to think that way?….. It would be interesting to see the reaction of some of our self styled right wing religious patriots if they were seated next to Jesus Christ on an airplane. I have always felt one of the major flaws of the human animal was what seems to be an innate need to feel superior to someone else. Sad - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:21 am: –I have always felt that a perverse outcome of our well intentioned efforts to promote “diversity” have had the exact opposite effect. – So there wasn’t violent ethnic, religious or racial bigotry in this country until a bunch of goo-goos started talking diversity? That’s a funny history book you’re reading. So the very act of teaching tolerance and respect promotes it’s exact opposite. That’s an interesting view on the value of teaching right and wrong. What do The Gospels promote then, unintentionally? Hate thy neighbor? - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:22 am: Cincinnatus, that’s quite possibly the silliest comment you’ve ever made here. Who’s been brainwashed in this country and by whom? You really believe that? - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:30 am: And are you really excusing the act of slashing a man’s throat because somebody might be upset that he was advised to be kind to people not exactly like him? - walkinfool - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:38 am: Cinci: A little historical perspective might help. The current wave of immigrants actually learns English faster than any group in our history. The slowest, by the way, were the Germans of the 19th Century, which is why Illinois had 9 German language newspapers for many decades, and why Lincoln had a German publisher as part of his senior campaign staff. The descendants of earlier immigrants have always resented the later ones. Rich: Best wishes to you and your family. - Cincinnatus - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 9:53 am: Rich, We have been highlighting diversity instead of promoting commonality for about 40-50 years. Pick up a classroom text book to see what I mean. Look at the rise in “diversity studies” at our universities. We are dividing people, unintentionally I believe, instead of promoting those things that bring us together. All of the people, since the beginning of the nation, have come here to participate in the vision laid down for this nation in its earliest days. That’s why my grandfather came here. He didn’t come here to be an Italian-American, and to this day I reject that label. He came here to be an American, not part of a hyphenated group, and I think he was right. We absorbed all our different ethnic communities, albeit with some difficulties, to become the so called melting pot of the world. I truly believe we have lost the vision in our well intentioned diversity/tolerance movement which is creating more wedges than healing scars. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:00 am: Cincy, and how does your blah, blah, blah, of who came here for whatever alleged reasons you cite encourage some racist to slash someone’s throat? It was the schools that made him do it, was it? Because they taught tolerance and respect? Gee, my parents and church taught me that (and theirs taught them). I wonder why we never felt the need to stick a knife to the throat of someone who didn’t look like us. How can you traffic in such ignorant nonsense? - Cheryl44 - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:02 am: Because tolerance is such an awful thing. Right Cincy? - Team Sleep - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:18 am: I once had a constituent of an elected official asked me if the Constitution precluded a Muslim from serving in elected office. I replied no. The person loudly declared they all should be banned from holding public office - especially the Presidency, since the person was also adamant that Mr. Obama is a Muslim. I explained that, to my knowledge, Mr. Obama is not a Muslim and that, if he was (I was playing hypothetically so please don’t think I was race-bating), religion is an intensely private decision. I also noted that the first amendment guaranteed religious freedom. - Irish - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:38 am: Hoping not to affend anyone here, but I think what Cincy is trying to say is that the teaching of diversity and cultural differences might have unintentioned results. While the teaching of those differences is meant to educate the rest of us in what helps shape a particular group and foster a better understanding of their uniqueness it also differentiates them from the rest of us. So is it helping with inclusiveness or is it pointing out differences that divide? I guess I can kinda see his point. I have wondered if certain individuals who always seem to point out color differences of their own people are actually helping or hindering in the effort to recognize people as people and not as people with differences in color. My father grew up in a very diverse very small community. Cultural differences were very evident and I suppose there were issues that people don’t talk about but the stories he told us and the friends he had were considered a blessing because of cultural uniqueness that was embraced and became some of our traditions as a family. Recipes and traditions from many different ethnicities are still a part of our family. We never thought of these folks as Italian, Hungarian, Polish, etc. The were Jimmy, Frank, George, or the guy that made the morte della. We thought we were pretty cool if we understood some of the words or phrases that were usually sprinkled through their conversations. I guess that tolerance and how we approach and understand diversity is more shaped by the way we were raised and our life experiences than programs given in school. However what does not help are certain groups or factions of groups that point out how their guy, or candidate is better than the other guy because he is Christian, more American, etc. than the other guy. It is these tactics that attempt to point out that diversity or uniqueness is bad and unAmerican that throw fuel on the fire. Anyone who does this should automatically be shunned by every citizen. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:46 am: –Cultural differences were very evident and I suppose there were issues that people don’t talk about but the stories he told us and the friends he had were considered a blessing because of cultural uniqueness that was embraced and became some of our traditions as a family.– That’s the heart of what’s being taught in schools regarding tolerance for those different from you. Sounds like your folks grew up in a great town. But we’re all aware that there has been ethnic, religious and racial violence, all over the world, in every era, to this very day. - Cincinnatus - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:52 am: Since the law of unintended consequences is what I’m talking about, I think you all may be missing my point. And to even imply that I am intolerant, or think that people shouldn’t be tolerant toward one another is insulting. If there is any racial/ethnic element to this attack, and not just an act of some loon, then we can start talking about the motivations behind the attack. All I am saying is that the attacker MAY have felt isolated because we are now promoting the differences between people instead of the commonality among us. People, perhaps not you all, but I believe people in general, have for the past years watched as each group claims some group right. When you start cutting up the baby, everyone wants to have a piece. An American ethic, if such a thing exists, is that we’re all in this together as a single group, not a bunch of small separate ones. I believe the reason you see so many ethnic/group/religious/racial problems is that each attempt to carve out a special place for any of them causes some other group to wonder, “What about me.” - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:54 am: ===All I am saying is that the attacker MAY have felt isolated because we are now promoting the differences between people instead of the commonality among us. === That’s just plain goofy. Seriously. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 10:59 am: –If there is any racial/ethnic element to this attack, and not just an act of some loon, then we can start talking about the motivations behind the attack. All I am saying is that the attacker MAY have felt isolated because we are now promoting the differences between people instead of the commonality among us.– Or MAYBE he was just a violent, racist bigot, of which there have no shortage in every corner of the world at any time in world history, including your rather fuzzy time when promoting”commonality” was the rule. When and where was that, anyway? You thought you heard a Pavlovian Bell to hit some of the usual talking points there Cincy, but it was really just a racist violent attack. But your compassion for the attacker’s possible feelings of isolation are very warm and fuzzy. - Nuclear Bozo - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 11:05 am: To add to the ignorance one of the C-U TV station talking heads mentioned last night that “the victim wasn’t a Muslim, he was from Sri Lanka.” Funny but sad at the same time. - Chevy owner/Ford County - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 11:09 am: Cinci, What an utterly silly, silly comment. The victim is a Law Professor at a prestigious American university specializing in Tax Law, Political and Public Economies. He was waiting for a bus. Sounds to me like he was pretty well socially integrated. I suppose, given that he appeared “Middle Eastern” he could have bleached his hair and skin in order to make the perpetraitor (and you) feel like he “belonged” more but I think most of us would agree that that is a bit much to ask. Perhaps it is you who no longer fits. - dupage dan - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 11:24 am: I think Cincy’s comments are ill timed even if I understand what he is trying to say. Addressing such a horrific individual incident by trying to discuss the drawbacks of the diversity movement is sure to trigger the kinds of comments that I read here. And rightly so, I think. Trying to put the actions of s twisted dirtbag such as the perpetrator in this story into the context of unintended consequences of the diversity movement will never work. I doubt the monster was thinking along those lines while he was assualting the unfortunate professor. Trying to explain the consequences of the diversity movement, intended or otherwise with this group would be challenging enough even without the instant issue in the mix. Maybe another time, Cincy. - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 11:37 am: ===Trying to put the actions of s twisted dirtbag === Allegedly a meth dealer to boot. - IrishPirate - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 12:02 pm: Reading the story I would have guessed alcohol and mental illness before meth, but in the end it doesn’t matter. Some people are just nutz. To paraphrase Rick James ‘meth is one hell of a drug’. http://urlybits.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Meth-Is-A-Hell-Of-A-Drug-600×300.jpg I think I’ll stick to caffeine and alcohol……….the alcohol in moderate doses. - DuPage Dave - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 12:30 pm: Cincinnatus is way, way off base here. You don’t attack an innocent person- nearly killing him- because of a diversity program. You attack someone like that when you’ve been fed a diet of hatred for foreigners and Muslims for years. And that information is not coming from government-sponsored diversity programs. As Grandpa used to say, “What a load of baloney!” - jake - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 1:10 pm: I am an old geezer, 73, so I have seen the changes over the years in how our society deals with racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. The changes I have seen are almost all to the good. All my life, we have been a very diverse country. The difference now is that we acknowledge diversity and sometimes even celebrate it, and we interact with diverse people much more than we used to, as opposed to the walls that we built around different communities when I was young. - Edge of the 14th Ward - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 1:12 pm: @Cincinnatus: I’m not trying to pile on here, but there’s no reason we can’t all maintain some of our individual cultural identity while also playing a full part in American society. It’s not an either/or proposition. Your father’s attitude toward English reminds me of my grandparents’ attitude toward English. My grandfather spoke fluent Spanish and my grandmother spoke fluent French, but they decided to raise their kids in an English-only home. What a shame. My mother and her siblings could easily be trilingual today. Think of how much more of the world would be open to them if they spoke Spanish and French in addition to English. Needless to say, they would still be just as American as they are now. - wordslinger - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 1:37 pm: –All my life, we have been a very diverse country. The difference now is that we acknowledge diversity and sometimes even celebrate it, and we interact with diverse people much more than we used to, as opposed to the walls that we built around different communities when I was young. – Thank you, Jake. And Cincy, when you were growing up in that five-flat in Chicago, where everyone “felt part of a common culture” so “events like this would be minimized–” What year was that, I wonder, in your youth, where everyone in Chicago felt part of a common culture and apparently there was little violent tension along racial, religious or ethnic grounds? That must have been a Golden Era. When was that? - Small Town Liberal - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 1:57 pm: - My grandfather demanded we all speak English and assimilate into the American culture - Uh, did you ever think he probably did this because he was worried his family would be the target of mistreatment if they didn’t assimilate? Promoting a society where everyone can be an American even if they still embrace their cultural heritage is hardly the cause of tragic incidents like this one. My guess is that this loony meth addict probably didn’t pay much attention to “‘diversity’ brainwashing” while he was growing up. - reformer - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 2:13 pm: Cinci So do you disapprove of the St Patrick’s Day parade? How about Jewish bond drivers for Israel? Polish delis? Mexican bakeries? Tell us specifically which ethnic or religious activities are the bad ones. (Unless you’ve decided to stop digging.) - Katiedid - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 2:33 pm: As someone who is 1/2 Christian Arab, this one strikes close to home. The thing is, unless you knew it independently, you would *never* guess that by looking at me, so many people have felt completely justified in pouring out the most vile hatred of “them A-rabs” to me that you would imagine because they thought I was “one of them.” And, as wordslinger said, the vast majority of Muslims aren’t even Arabic. The largest population of Muslims are in Indonesia. I couldn’t agree more with Edge’s comments about his grandparents. My grandparents spoke fluent Arabic, but didn’t teach their children one word of it and it’s still a regret to their kids. Sad. - Katiedid - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 2:36 pm: Adding - I don’t want to make it sound like there should be issues for Muslims, either. I just meant to note that the people who think they’re being “observant” have no clue what to look for. Just meant to point out that Arab doesn’t equal Muslim in the same way that Muslim doesn’t equal terrorist. - D.P. Gumby - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 2:39 pm: I’m sorry Cinci, but it was not “commonality” that was being promoted. Rather, it was conformity w/ the dominant white anglo-saxon protestant upper class culture. “Diversity” is an effort to recognize the equality of all different cultures that lead to the E Pluribus Unum. The “out of many, one” has to recognize the equality of each of the many. This jingoistic attitude, cloaked by such phony political issues as the “voting fraud” “immigration” and “islamic terror” are just the same old anti-Irish, anti-Catholic, anti-Italian, anti-German, anti-Black, anti-Mexican, anti-fill in the blank, has no legitimacy. - Concerned Professor - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 2:55 pm: Rich - You’ve lived in central Illinois how long and this surprises you (the attitude, not necessarily the action)? - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 3:04 pm: ===and this surprises you (the attitude, not necessarily the action)=== If the attitude surprised me, why would I warn my wife about speaking Arabic in public here? - Skeeter - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 3:17 pm: Cincy is right. It is all the fault of liberals that a psycho slashed the fault of an innocent person. He is not to blame. Society is to blame. Well argued, Cincy. /snark/ - Rich Miller - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 3:20 pm: OK, I think Cinci has given up. Let’s suspend the beatdown, please. Move along. - Skeeter - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 3:20 pm: The sad part is that it not just the true psychos that are a problem. My wife had the problem for many years of “Flying With A Name That Was Too Long.” She’s got a long Greek name. That meant extra searches and added hassles nearly every time she traveled (although things do seem to have calmed down a bit the last two years of so). - Timmeh - Friday, Dec 9, 11 @ 4:13 pm: While I don’t agree with the conclusion that Cinci draws, I think that there is some truth that we should be looking towards teaching commonality (in addition to diversity rather than instead of) in schools and colleges. Recognizing what is different between people is important, but so is recognizing what is the same. If people are to be tolerant, there needs to be both. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.