Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan Feb 12, 1987 - Aug 6, 2007 - ...he was an American.

He was an American.

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

Thank you Gen. Powell for so eloquently saying what all true Americans believe.


(h/t Making Light for the link to the photo.)

Colin Powell Coulda Been a Contender but Failed. Can He be a Voice of Reason?

Watch this, or read the transcript here. I suggest you watch it though.

Colin Powell is obviously a highly intelligent, knowledgeable person with an incredible amount of experience. This is the reason I was incredibly disappointed in him when he testified before the U.N. with the infamous "vial of anthrax." I had hoped, at the time, that he was going to be the voice of reason in the Bush Administration. The voice of experience that would temper the rush to war. Unfortunately for the world I was wrong. Up until the U.N. testimony I would have voted for Gen. Powell for president over many Democrats, even given some disturbing incidents in his background. However, after that incident I lost most of my respect and all faith in him.

After watching what he had to say on Meet the Press, he has gained back some of his respect in my eyes. He summed up the current state of politics in this country better than anyone else I have read or watched. If conservatives and Republicans LISTEN to him and try to comprehend what he was saying then maybe there is hope for some kind of ideological compromise to help reunite the country in the not too distant future.