Thank you Frederick Douglass for reminding me of this from the grave, as tiled into the side of a work center near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC. I walked past this building about a week ago and have been rolling around this phrase in my head since.

Then this morning I listened to a report on NPR about the new Arabic School here in NYC. There is lots and lots of controversy around this school. You can read all about it, if you care, but I spare you the jingoism and xenophobia: people hate the school.

At this point you might be thinking what do the words of a freed slave have to do with an Arabic school in NYC…

It is simple, and 2 fold:

1. If we learn about “the enemy” and increase understanding of “him” we can no longer vilify “him” and the GWOT will have to be questioned, thereby upsetting the fascist US status quo.
2. People are idiots and inherently hate education - just watch any Fox network and you will see why they are so popular. Idiots rule this nation by their gullibility and the ease by which they can be manipulated.

I am squarely behind this school. If it spawns a couple kids to civil disobedience and question our jihad against anything non-evangelically-Christian, then there might just be a God.