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BY MIKE VORKUNOV
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
Yesterday was a special day for my family and me. It marked the 17-year anniversary of our immigration to the United States. As for all émigrés that day always holds a dear place.
For those that come from countries with recent histories of political and ideological oppression, days like yesterday mark an occasion to re-examine why you left and what you've gained. I always take a moment or two to think about the freedoms I've gained and what they really mean.
That, for myself, this memorial day comes so closely to the horrors of 9/11 gives it special meaning, especially in this year's context.The battle over the proposed mosque near the World Trade Center site and the promised Qur'an burning make me even more thankful, yet, also more contemplative.
It's at times like these where we must remember that the rights and freedoms we are granted are not just abstract. It is not just about the idea, but the execution.
Often times it puts us in tense situations and battling our own prejudices. Rights become adversarial to what we feel is right.Is it crass to build a mosque so close to where a tragedy occurred at the hands of people who acted under the guise of the same religion? Perhaps. But it is also crass to envelop all Muslims under the same umbrella, through ignorance of distinction.
Especially, their right to practice freely should not suddenly be revoked because it is uncomfortable.
Even worse is what will transpire Saturday in Florida. The level of hatred and blindness people must attain to disrespect one another by burning something as sacred as a religious scripture is unfathomable. There is no positive recourse that could come from such an act.
As it reads on a lonely plaque in Berlin at Bebelplatz, where the Nazis once burned 20,000 books for not dissimilar reasons, "Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people."
Still, their right to do so should not be encumbered. The right to freedom of speech is not available under the condition of personal bias.
"In a strange way I'm here to defend his right to do that," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the right of the Florida group's right to burn the Islamic holy book. "I happen to think that it is distasteful. I don't think he would like it if somebody burnt a book that in his religion he thinks is holy."
"But the First Amendment protects everybody, and you can't say that we're going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement."
So as I contemplated yesterday, the bounties I am now afforded and the rights my predecessors were deprived, I also hope we do not take our rights and leave them only as ideas. If we do not act upon them and allow them to be executed, then they can become perverted. Anything on paper can be changed or erased. Let's not leave it up to ink but to action.
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