Art Interlude: Bosch Fawstin Today

THE UNAVENGED

Had to laugh aloud earlier today over on the FaceBook thing when an old and beloved friend backhandedly suggested racism and racial profiling and right wingism as motivation for my (annual) display of an FBI picture of the 19 barbarians who perpetrated 9/11 -- old college chum punctuating his chiding accusation with a smiley face emoticon -- as if my slip into bigotry were already forgiven.
Gee, thanks.
Sure I couldda engaged, but I take no offense, especially at quick shots on the FaceBook; hey, we post and we cannot take it back; no do-overs; and them ole Teachable Moments bore the hell outta me anyway. I'm too old for that shite. Time is precious. And I need no defense.
Tru dat.
Tho the easiest, laziest, cheapest, Al Sharptonest comment in America today for anything or anyone you don't like: Racist!
It's our first line of attack.
Our fallback position.
Effin eff that.
And the Rev Wright it rode in on.
Plus that pic of those perps gets big response in different settings every year.
Some'o'those faces don't look any different or any older than some of the kids I teach.
Some of 'em.
Gotta say it makes the young ones s-t-o-p and t-h-i-n-k every time I place it before them.
Silences them.
Those faces silence them.
In a way that the tired droning Reading Of The Names of the 2996 Islamo-murdered does not.
I don't even say anything. I just place the picture before them.
Then my kids say it all. Truthfully and intelligently.
And movingly. And revealingly.
And clear-headedly. And cleanly. And without prejudice.
And I'll say it again. Some of the perp's faces don't look any different or any older than some of the kids I teach.
Can you say Ahmed Alnami or Hani Hanjour?
....Young. Pretty. Earnest. Semitic. Or, Aryan lookin' -- in a Persian way.
And Persians will tell ya, tell ya quickly, they are the original Aryan nation.
***
How did those young men decide to do what that they did that day?
One need not be racing, one need not be profiling, one need not be wing-nutting to look at those faces and wonder.
Nor does one need to be forgiving. Leave that to the One God.
***
Suspect or suggest or attribute to me any motive you like.
What I do know is that the perps are the perps.
Hey, I'll speak truth to stupid: The perps are the perps.
If they all have something in common, don't blame moi.
Besides if I were to get up off of my prayer rug, put my shoes back on my stinkin' feet and do some profilin', it wouldn't be racial profiling I'd be invoking, it'd be religious profiling.
Mother of God preserve us all from the Islam.
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"Though I was born into a Muslim family, I became interested in Islam only after 9/11/01, when 19 Muslims murdered 2,996 human beings in the name of Islam. Those who always gave a damn for the truth did their homework and found out for themselves what Islam really meant before they said one word about it. But then there were the politicians and the ideologues. Even before the smoke cleared, Western politicians and intellectuals who knew nothing about Islam couldn't wait to exonerate it by uttering the anti-reality check of our time, 'Islam means peace.'

Bosch Fawstin
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And thank you President Obama for your two (2) good good good sentences this week:

"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this barbaric act and who plot against us still."
"In pursuit of al-Qaida and its extremist allies, we will never falter."

Hope is for chumps but I surely hope your actions match your -- kinda Bushian -- nine one one words, Mr. President.
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We all know I've had bad experiences with art in the past, but Bosch Fawstin: Thank you for your good stuff.
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...Updatery linked within post...
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