I've explored childcare as a way to attempt meaningful reform, but the financial cost is very high indeed. The idea is that if single moms had safe affordable childcare they could get the training they needed, and get a better paying job that would reduce the demands on the whole family to simply maintain.
I think that safe, reliable childcare is one of the most important systems the government could establish to improve the long term health and competitiveness of this country. The cost might be high at first, but do it right and future rewards are immense. Unfortunately something that logically sound and future oriented is far off. We still have the sexist notion that "woman's work" should be done at the cost of individual women's money and time, regardless of the impact on the nation as a whole.
It's really easy to spend one's entire life without taking any action on(or even thinking about) these kinds of deep systemic issues and believe that "that's just the way things are" ,"this is the way things should be" or "There's no use in me doing anything". That's what privilege is. It's being able to have others submit to YOUR comfort zone. Intentionally or not.
hold up what? So your blaming white people for the influence that rappers have on black people? Maybe if society didn't allow the kind of crap(the negative stuff fyi) to get into their child's heads then this would not happen. I am a parent and I am not constantly putting anything negative into my children's heads. Some of the stuff I listen too might be too much for a child to understand, but I don't listen to it around them just like I don't watch dirty movies around them. Parents need to set up and stop blaming outside influences most of which the can control.
Also AA doesn't fix these problems it actually just compounds them by causing racial tension.
I am blaming white people. This is not to say that Black people are not also responsible, but that white people are too. As the primary consumers of hip hop they have a massive influence on the direction it takes. The music corporations don't care about the content of the music, just the consumption of it. It won't help anything if Black people do it on their own. There needs to be education on both sides about negative rap music and the unfortunate historical circumstances from which it emerged and the social system that causes it to flourish. If tons money can still be made from it, it going to be hard to convince a young black child not to sell out. Especially when he has few other opportunities to be sucessful.
You have to look at it from the perspective of a child who is likely to be poor, fatherless and receiving a poor education. This problem is not just about individuals "not doing their part". You have to look at the system the child is a part of, and the tremendous amount of influence white people have on it.
For your second point, is that a problem of "policies that that take factors including 'race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin'[1] into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination"? or the current form those policies take? The policies the U.S. has chosen to implement might be poor, but that doesn't mean that the idea of Affirmative Action is inherently wrong.
I read this article a few days ago and I think he brings up an interesting point that is worth debating.
"In theory, I am deeply skeptical of government industrial policy. Government doesn’t know how to pick winners and losers, it will make mistakes, and the process will get politicized. All this is true. And yet when I look at China and South Korea and also Germany and Japan, I see governments playing a crucial role. They do make mistakes— their versions of Solyndra— but they seem to view them the way venture capitalists would. Their role is to seed many companies, only a few of which will succeed. Once these companies are identified, government helps them compete against big U.S. multi nationals. There used to be a joke about Marxist economists who would say of a deviation from pure communist economics: “It might work in practice, comrade, but it doesn’t work in theory.” That’s what industrial policy looks like these days. The theory doesn’t make sense, but it’s hard to argue with the result."
Are we valuing theory over practice in our industrial policy at the cost of our global competitiveness?
the problem with this is rap and hip hop are a big part of this. All of this thug life and bs and the media has just been fanning the flames. Not all of this is their fault, but a lot is. I am a poor white american, and my situation is partially my fault, and partially not, but I don't go running around in a gang knocking up 16 year olds and thinking my life style is cool.
Plenty of African-Americans are doing just as well as white people. I mean look in professional sports. I was watching sports center the other day and the anchors were wondering when the next white prodigy was going to come around because we have had so many African American superstars and no White-American superstars.(in NBA) Sports has bridged this gap now if society and the media will just give up on racism we can all more forward. It is sad that rap music has created this stereotype and people feel that they gotta live it out.
You have to put the problem in perspective. 60% of the people who buy rap music are white http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111521814339424546,00.html
This means that white people (suburban white youth in particular) have a drastic impact on the content of rap music that becomes popular. They don't want to hear "conscious" rap music, so corporate executives are not looking for those kinds of artists. Everyday white people consume negative rap music through requesting it on the radio, watching it on youtube, buying albums and attending concerts, then turn around and have the same beliefs that you do while ignoring their own participation in the system. White parents do the same too,standing by or facilitating the consumption of negative rap by their children, often because the only rap they have heard of is what is popular. The day that the majority of white parents can say "don't listen to that garbage, here is some GOOD hip hop" will be a great day for music. But most white parents dismiss the entire art form as well as the communities the music comes from, yet still participate in it's consumption too. The trend continues for Whites in their 20's as well.
Now with that context, if you are a black youth who is poor and has had little guidance to put your life in social or historical perspective you have the chance to make millions by participating in a modern day minstrel show. Do you take the more "conscious" route or the one that will make you money? This is not to take blame off of the Black community, but white people need to realize the ENORMOUS impact they have had(and will continue to have) on the evolution of modern, popular rap, and the stereotypes that have been perpetuated about Blacks and in many cases internalized by Black youths.
The focus on Sports as a means to success is deeply problematic for the Black community it encourages young black males to adopt a high risk high reward model of success at the expense of education at the high school and college levels. NBA players don't influence policies or write laws(politicians or lawyers), NBA players don't help invent new technologies(engineers and scientists), NBA players aren't trained to properly educate youth(Teachers and Professors). The aspirations of so many Black youth are too narrow and unrealistic. "I want to spend my life dribbling a basket ball or talking about being a criminal" most people won't get too far with that, and thus the cycle continues.
@the_Cardfather
I think that current Affirmative Action policies are deeply flawed. They view Racism as dealing with intentions rather than as a systemic problem that has been evolving for centuries. The problem is incredibly delicate and complex and it's going to take much more than "Hire that middle class black guy" to fix the problem. Like I said earlier, the reason that poor whites and poor blacks don't identify with one another is due to racism. European immigrants who had little in common with wealthy whites back home suddenly found that they gained immense economic, social and psychological privileges by identifying with them. There used to be a saying that "One of the first words you learn when you get off the boat is ******." This relationship between lower and upper-class whites in our society has been deeply exploitative, racism has been a huge part of this. Poor whites have often not advocated for deep systemic change because 1.undeserving brown people might benefit or 2. A brown face is used to distract whites with band-aid solutions.(Illegal Immigration is not the problem, it's deeper.)
I've read Maxwell, and he has an accurate grasps of the the problems the Black community faces and he is right that we need to take control of our own communities. However, look at this statement:
"Many low-income black parents, especially uneducated single mothers, are unprepared to effectively teach their children. To be effective, parents must spend what experts call “quality time” with their children. The 1995 study “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children” shows that the vocabularies of children of parents on welfare were smaller than those of children of professionals by an average of 1,537 words by age 3, primarily because professional parents naturally hold more positive and complex conversations with their children.
“The effects on future student academic achievement are very large — differences among children at entry into kindergarten in the skills that are a product of the home environment are more powerful predictors of future academic achievement than variables under the control of K-12,” Grover Whitehurst, an expert on parental involvement with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, told Education Week during a recent interview.
I was encouraged that recent census numbers show that more low-income black parents are involved in their children’s education than a decade ago, this is in large part because of federal programs such as Reach Out and Read, Early Reading First and Reading is Fundamental.
A problem now is that funding for these programs has been slashed. Federal funding or not, black parents have a duty to be their children’s first teacher. Until they understand and practice this universal concept, their children will continue to lag behind."
He admits that federal programs have helped Black parents educate their children,admits it's a problem that these programs have been slashed, then says that somehow without these programs the Black community has to magically do it on their own despite the fact that "Many low-income black parents, especially uneducated single mothers, are unprepared to effectively teach their children." When a child's mother is 17, she needs help learning how to effectively educate and rear her child. If her mother is equally unqualified, she has no one to turn to. Black people taking the initiative and government assistance are not mutually exclusive, but equally necessary.
We tried to do it on our own during the 60s and 70s, yet the government understandably resisted the Black power movement and actively worked to destroy it in rather insidious ways. The government can't demand Blacks to "do it on our own" then actively work to destroy the efforts we attempt. If the government wants to influence the development of the Black community, we there has to be a collaborative vision and financial backing.
If defined as "policies that take factors including 'race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin'[1] into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination". Then yes, Affirmative Action policies are necessary. If we look at the Black community we can clearly see that there are uniquely Black issues that need to be addressed.
I draw your attention to the statistics dealing with H.I.V.,Incarceration, High School drop out rates, single motherhood and Black on Black violence and Heart Disease/Stroke fatalities.
Most of these are due to the unhealthy and unfortunate cultural habits Blacks developed due to centuries of poor education, emasculation (of Men),objectification(of Women),poverty,terrorism and racism.
In fact, Many Black communities are just as bad off if not worse off in than they were before the Civil Rights Act was passed in many ways. Most of the material gains have been lost.
I do believe that the Government does owe the Black community an earnest attempt to solve these issues in a way that Black people will actually be receptive to.
We tried to do it on our own during the 60's and 70's in a radical fashion which understandably worried the government, but rather than trying understand or at least try to provide alternative opportunities to draw Blacks away from radicalism, the government worked to sabatoge these organizations and movements.
I also think Affirmative Action should address class issues as well I don't believe that a middle class Black person should be chosen over a poor white person. It's a huge problem within our racist society that which poor whites have been historically encouraged to identitfy with the wealthy elite in the name of "Whiteness". It's a shame that so many poor Whites identitify more with wealthy elites than the people of color working beside them. Still, I believe that poor Black communities are in more need of Government attention than poor White communities.
I posted a weird list awhile back using bloodbraid elf, treasure hunt, KOTR, Crusher, Realm Uncharted, Manlands and removal. It was pretty fun and surprisingly consistent. I also tried the hybrid landfall list Aberosh1819, but I found that it was often inconsistent. Seeing a group of 3+ casing cost cards early was awful, but so was topdecking steppe lynxes and plated geopedes in the mid/late game.
Sorry, my last post was kind of jumbly
@ Confederacy: I know the Confederacy was multifaceted, that's why I said "since the fall of the Confederacy". I feel confident saying that about 99% of groups who have used the flag as a symbol since the fall have been white supremacists. The meaning of the flag as a symbol has changed drastically from when it was first created. Its current meaning seems to be the one you invoked when comparing it to the NY mosque. This I have a problem with. The flag is now recognized worldwide as a symbol of hate, mosques are not. This is why people have gotten so offended by your analogy, and feel like you believe that all muslims are terrorists. When you say a mosque(increadibly diverse meanings) is just like a Confederate Flag (Well recognized symbol of hate), people are going to think you percieve Islam as a religion of hate.
It's true that symbols don't shed meanings they aquire, but should we perceive all of a symbol's meaning equally in every instance? Is a symbol equally stained by all meanings it obtains? Sure Muslims burn the American flag, but it's a different circumstance, they are focusing the American flag into symbol of American Imperialism. During their protest it has that meaning because those who employ the symbol(The Angry Muslims) wish for it to have that meaning. In the case of the NY center, the owners want it to symbolize peace and understanding, why should I dredge up the other meanings of the symbol when it seems pretty obvious (Them being Sufis and all) that they are serious? Why should they respect the wishes of people who percieve a very narrow(and recent meaning) of thier symbol when, the owners have been explicit about thier intentions? On the other hand, the Confederate flag has been consistently used as nothing more than a symbol of white supremacy for over a century, it pretty reasonable to assume that outside of a historical reference, a person employing this symbol can be linked to racist ideologies in some way.
]My last sentence was a poor way of saying that you feel that in this situation any muslim sect should behave as if they were a fundamentalist sect i.e. move thier building. If they were a fundamentalist sect I would also believe that moving thier mosque is the right thing to do because they are too aligned with radical Islam for thier building to be in good taste. However, I don't think it's fair to expect the same action from any other muslim sect.
Oh, I just realized you want to have a theoretical debate about a mosque built On ground zero. I feel there is no debate, I believe 99% of people would find that inconsiderate and offensive. We can still debate symbology if you like
@Crashing00: I know you feel that people are misrepresenting your position, but they are just trying to point out some of the problems with your position.
For example: You compare a mosque to a Confederate flag.
This is a very poor example. Since the fall of the Confederacy it's flag hasbasically only been a symbol of empowerment for people who believe America belongs to White Christians. A Mosque mainly represents Islam, which is full of countless Ideologies(Most of the peacful). Let's put this logic in reverse.
The flag of Al Qaeda is a Symbol of a group that commited attrocities.
An American Cultural center represents Americans, a group which also commited attrocities.
Therefore there should be no American cultural centers anywhere near places Americans commited Attrocities, that's like putting an Al Qaeda flag next to a neighborhood that's been terrorized by Al Qaeda.
It looks weird when you compare a diverse multifaceted group and a narrowly focused one. Though more subtly than others, you still are encouraging a diverse group to behave as if it is basically the same as a section of that group only because they share the same symbol.
Fauna Juggler
The red is mainly so I can justify it costing 3 mana. It's as Fumar Guessed. I was thinking about having it grant haste, but I feel that might make it too powerful.
Fauna Juggler UGR
Creature-Goblin Shaman
At the beginning of your Upkeep, return a creature
you control other than Fauna Juggler to owner's hand.
If you do, put a creature from your hand onto the Battlefield.
2/2
Transmorph 2U
Sorcery
Exile target nonland permanent.
That permanent's controler puts a 4/4 blue illusion
token(with flying?)onto the battlefield under his or her control.
Trugdor,Grudgemaster of Urgg 1WR
Legendary Creature- Dwarf Soldier
Firststrike
When Trugdor, Grudgemaster of Urgg enters the battefield
name a creature. As long as an opponent controls a creature
with the chosen name, Trugdor, Grudgemaster of Urgg gains +2/+2 and haste.
3/2
Amorphous Mist 5U
Creature- Illusion
You may have Amorphous Mist enter the battlefield as a copy of any Permanent.
0/0 Was formally a tribal artifact Ooze with a6mana cost
I'm guessing you haven't actually read the ADL's reasons fro opposing this have you? because they would oppose this too, and for the same reasons.
and those reasons DO make sense. They aren't saying the muslims should be prohibited from doing it. They are asking the muslims to be respectful and not do it. Its just like when there was a group of Nun's who wanted to make a convent at Auschwiez to honor the dead, but the ADL asked them not to out of respect.
This, on the other hand, is totally different. Timothy Mcveigh was a bomber who happened to claim christianity. None of his actions were credited to his faith (AFAIK) nor was he driven to them by his faith. The 9/11 attackers weren't attacking the US for some other reason and just happened to be muslim. They attacked the US specifically because of their faith.
But why is it disrespectful? The only reason people seem to be offended by the cultural center is because they have a myopic view of Islam. Why should the building owners indulge them when building the center will do far more to begin the process of healing and mutual understanding(which can often be a painful process to start)? I can't understand why act done by violent extremist in a tradition should mean that a group expousing the opposite beliefs in the same tradition should keep themselves from establishing a center two blocks away from where the incident happened 9 years later. Even in the case of the Nuns, I'm sure no one would of objected if the wanted to make thier covenant two blocks away from Auschwiez instead of at it.
-Christianity was a bad example, but substitute Christianity for any organization holding less extreme versions of his own beliefs such as the NRA or The Tea Party people.
I think they're all nice cards. The only one that seems too strong is the illusion familiar, bump up the rarity. For comparison, Merchant of Secrets is common;Vodalian Merchant is common.
I think that safe, reliable childcare is one of the most important systems the government could establish to improve the long term health and competitiveness of this country. The cost might be high at first, but do it right and future rewards are immense. Unfortunately something that logically sound and future oriented is far off. We still have the sexist notion that "woman's work" should be done at the cost of individual women's money and time, regardless of the impact on the nation as a whole.
It's really easy to spend one's entire life without taking any action on(or even thinking about) these kinds of deep systemic issues and believe that "that's just the way things are" ,"this is the way things should be" or "There's no use in me doing anything". That's what privilege is. It's being able to have others submit to YOUR comfort zone. Intentionally or not.
I am blaming white people. This is not to say that Black people are not also responsible, but that white people are too. As the primary consumers of hip hop they have a massive influence on the direction it takes. The music corporations don't care about the content of the music, just the consumption of it. It won't help anything if Black people do it on their own. There needs to be education on both sides about negative rap music and the unfortunate historical circumstances from which it emerged and the social system that causes it to flourish. If tons money can still be made from it, it going to be hard to convince a young black child not to sell out. Especially when he has few other opportunities to be sucessful.
You have to look at it from the perspective of a child who is likely to be poor, fatherless and receiving a poor education. This problem is not just about individuals "not doing their part". You have to look at the system the child is a part of, and the tremendous amount of influence white people have on it.
For your second point, is that a problem of "policies that that take factors including 'race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin'[1] into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination"? or the current form those policies take? The policies the U.S. has chosen to implement might be poor, but that doesn't mean that the idea of Affirmative Action is inherently wrong.
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/home/Articles/Entries/2012/1/26_The_Case_for_Making_It_in_the_USA.html
I read this article a few days ago and I think he brings up an interesting point that is worth debating.
"In theory, I am deeply skeptical of government industrial policy. Government doesn’t know how to pick winners and losers, it will make mistakes, and the process will get politicized. All this is true. And yet when I look at China and South Korea and also Germany and Japan, I see governments playing a crucial role. They do make mistakes— their versions of Solyndra— but they seem to view them the way venture capitalists would. Their role is to seed many companies, only a few of which will succeed. Once these companies are identified, government helps them compete against big U.S. multi nationals. There used to be a joke about Marxist economists who would say of a deviation from pure communist economics: “It might work in practice, comrade, but it doesn’t work in theory.” That’s what industrial policy looks like these days. The theory doesn’t make sense, but it’s hard to argue with the result."
Are we valuing theory over practice in our industrial policy at the cost of our global competitiveness?
You have to put the problem in perspective. 60% of the people who buy rap music are white http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111521814339424546,00.html
This means that white people (suburban white youth in particular) have a drastic impact on the content of rap music that becomes popular. They don't want to hear "conscious" rap music, so corporate executives are not looking for those kinds of artists. Everyday white people consume negative rap music through requesting it on the radio, watching it on youtube, buying albums and attending concerts, then turn around and have the same beliefs that you do while ignoring their own participation in the system. White parents do the same too,standing by or facilitating the consumption of negative rap by their children, often because the only rap they have heard of is what is popular. The day that the majority of white parents can say "don't listen to that garbage, here is some GOOD hip hop" will be a great day for music. But most white parents dismiss the entire art form as well as the communities the music comes from, yet still participate in it's consumption too. The trend continues for Whites in their 20's as well.
Now with that context, if you are a black youth who is poor and has had little guidance to put your life in social or historical perspective you have the chance to make millions by participating in a modern day minstrel show. Do you take the more "conscious" route or the one that will make you money? This is not to take blame off of the Black community, but white people need to realize the ENORMOUS impact they have had(and will continue to have) on the evolution of modern, popular rap, and the stereotypes that have been perpetuated about Blacks and in many cases internalized by Black youths.
The focus on Sports as a means to success is deeply problematic for the Black community it encourages young black males to adopt a high risk high reward model of success at the expense of education at the high school and college levels. NBA players don't influence policies or write laws(politicians or lawyers), NBA players don't help invent new technologies(engineers and scientists), NBA players aren't trained to properly educate youth(Teachers and Professors). The aspirations of so many Black youth are too narrow and unrealistic. "I want to spend my life dribbling a basket ball or talking about being a criminal" most people won't get too far with that, and thus the cycle continues.
@the_Cardfather
I think that current Affirmative Action policies are deeply flawed. They view Racism as dealing with intentions rather than as a systemic problem that has been evolving for centuries. The problem is incredibly delicate and complex and it's going to take much more than "Hire that middle class black guy" to fix the problem. Like I said earlier, the reason that poor whites and poor blacks don't identify with one another is due to racism. European immigrants who had little in common with wealthy whites back home suddenly found that they gained immense economic, social and psychological privileges by identifying with them. There used to be a saying that "One of the first words you learn when you get off the boat is ******." This relationship between lower and upper-class whites in our society has been deeply exploitative, racism has been a huge part of this. Poor whites have often not advocated for deep systemic change because 1.undeserving brown people might benefit or 2. A brown face is used to distract whites with band-aid solutions.(Illegal Immigration is not the problem, it's deeper.)
I've read Maxwell, and he has an accurate grasps of the the problems the Black community faces and he is right that we need to take control of our own communities. However, look at this statement:
"Many low-income black parents, especially uneducated single mothers, are unprepared to effectively teach their children. To be effective, parents must spend what experts call “quality time” with their children. The 1995 study “Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children” shows that the vocabularies of children of parents on welfare were smaller than those of children of professionals by an average of 1,537 words by age 3, primarily because professional parents naturally hold more positive and complex conversations with their children.
“The effects on future student academic achievement are very large — differences among children at entry into kindergarten in the skills that are a product of the home environment are more powerful predictors of future academic achievement than variables under the control of K-12,” Grover Whitehurst, an expert on parental involvement with the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, told Education Week during a recent interview.
I was encouraged that recent census numbers show that more low-income black parents are involved in their children’s education than a decade ago, this is in large part because of federal programs such as Reach Out and Read, Early Reading First and Reading is Fundamental.
A problem now is that funding for these programs has been slashed. Federal funding or not, black parents have a duty to be their children’s first teacher. Until they understand and practice this universal concept, their children will continue to lag behind."
He admits that federal programs have helped Black parents educate their children,admits it's a problem that these programs have been slashed, then says that somehow without these programs the Black community has to magically do it on their own despite the fact that "Many low-income black parents, especially uneducated single mothers, are unprepared to effectively teach their children." When a child's mother is 17, she needs help learning how to effectively educate and rear her child. If her mother is equally unqualified, she has no one to turn to. Black people taking the initiative and government assistance are not mutually exclusive, but equally necessary.
We tried to do it on our own during the 60s and 70s, yet the government understandably resisted the Black power movement and actively worked to destroy it in rather insidious ways. The government can't demand Blacks to "do it on our own" then actively work to destroy the efforts we attempt. If the government wants to influence the development of the Black community, we there has to be a collaborative vision and financial backing.
More Later..
For example:http://madamenoire.com/107615/8-important-statistics-that-black-america-should-pay-attention-to-now/
I draw your attention to the statistics dealing with H.I.V.,Incarceration, High School drop out rates, single motherhood and Black on Black violence and Heart Disease/Stroke fatalities.
Most of these are due to the unhealthy and unfortunate cultural habits Blacks developed due to centuries of poor education, emasculation (of Men),objectification(of Women),poverty,terrorism and racism.
In fact, Many Black communities are just as bad off if not worse off in than they were before the Civil Rights Act was passed in many ways. Most of the material gains have been lost.
I do believe that the Government does owe the Black community an earnest attempt to solve these issues in a way that Black people will actually be receptive to.
We tried to do it on our own during the 60's and 70's in a radical fashion which understandably worried the government, but rather than trying understand or at least try to provide alternative opportunities to draw Blacks away from radicalism, the government worked to sabatoge these organizations and movements.
I also think Affirmative Action should address class issues as well I don't believe that a middle class Black person should be chosen over a poor white person. It's a huge problem within our racist society that which poor whites have been historically encouraged to identitfy with the wealthy elite in the name of "Whiteness". It's a shame that so many poor Whites identitify more with wealthy elites than the people of color working beside them. Still, I believe that poor Black communities are in more need of Government attention than poor White communities.
@ Confederacy: I know the Confederacy was multifaceted, that's why I said "since the fall of the Confederacy". I feel confident saying that about 99% of groups who have used the flag as a symbol since the fall have been white supremacists. The meaning of the flag as a symbol has changed drastically from when it was first created. Its current meaning seems to be the one you invoked when comparing it to the NY mosque. This I have a problem with. The flag is now recognized worldwide as a symbol of hate, mosques are not. This is why people have gotten so offended by your analogy, and feel like you believe that all muslims are terrorists. When you say a mosque(increadibly diverse meanings) is just like a Confederate Flag (Well recognized symbol of hate), people are going to think you percieve Islam as a religion of hate.
It's true that symbols don't shed meanings they aquire, but should we perceive all of a symbol's meaning equally in every instance? Is a symbol equally stained by all meanings it obtains? Sure Muslims burn the American flag, but it's a different circumstance, they are focusing the American flag into symbol of American Imperialism. During their protest it has that meaning because those who employ the symbol(The Angry Muslims) wish for it to have that meaning. In the case of the NY center, the owners want it to symbolize peace and understanding, why should I dredge up the other meanings of the symbol when it seems pretty obvious (Them being Sufis and all) that they are serious? Why should they respect the wishes of people who percieve a very narrow(and recent meaning) of thier symbol when, the owners have been explicit about thier intentions? On the other hand, the Confederate flag has been consistently used as nothing more than a symbol of white supremacy for over a century, it pretty reasonable to assume that outside of a historical reference, a person employing this symbol can be linked to racist ideologies in some way.
]My last sentence was a poor way of saying that you feel that in this situation any muslim sect should behave as if they were a fundamentalist sect i.e. move thier building. If they were a fundamentalist sect I would also believe that moving thier mosque is the right thing to do because they are too aligned with radical Islam for thier building to be in good taste. However, I don't think it's fair to expect the same action from any other muslim sect.
Oh, I just realized you want to have a theoretical debate about a mosque built On ground zero. I feel there is no debate, I believe 99% of people would find that inconsiderate and offensive. We can still debate symbology if you like
For example: You compare a mosque to a Confederate flag.
This is a very poor example. Since the fall of the Confederacy it's flag hasbasically only been a symbol of empowerment for people who believe America belongs to White Christians. A Mosque mainly represents Islam, which is full of countless Ideologies(Most of the peacful). Let's put this logic in reverse.
The flag of Al Qaeda is a Symbol of a group that commited attrocities.
An American Cultural center represents Americans, a group which also commited attrocities.
Therefore there should be no American cultural centers anywhere near places Americans commited Attrocities, that's like putting an Al Qaeda flag next to a neighborhood that's been terrorized by Al Qaeda.
It looks weird when you compare a diverse multifaceted group and a narrowly focused one. Though more subtly than others, you still are encouraging a diverse group to behave as if it is basically the same as a section of that group only because they share the same symbol.
The red is mainly so I can justify it costing 3 mana. It's as Fumar Guessed. I was thinking about having it grant haste, but I feel that might make it too powerful.
Creature-Goblin Shaman
At the beginning of your Upkeep, return a creature
you control other than Fauna Juggler to owner's hand.
If you do, put a creature from your hand onto the Battlefield.
2/2
Transmorph 2U
Sorcery
Exile target nonland permanent.
That permanent's controler puts a 4/4 blue illusion
token(with flying?)onto the battlefield under his or her control.
Trugdor,Grudgemaster of Urgg 1WR
Legendary Creature- Dwarf Soldier
Firststrike
When Trugdor, Grudgemaster of Urgg enters the battefield
name a creature. As long as an opponent controls a creature
with the chosen name, Trugdor, Grudgemaster of Urgg gains +2/+2 and haste.
3/2
Amorphous Mist 5U
Creature- Illusion
You may have Amorphous Mist enter the battlefield as a copy of any Permanent.
0/0
Was formally a tribal artifact Ooze with a6mana cost
Edit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_movements_within_Islam (in case you're not)
But why is it disrespectful? The only reason people seem to be offended by the cultural center is because they have a myopic view of Islam. Why should the building owners indulge them when building the center will do far more to begin the process of healing and mutual understanding(which can often be a painful process to start)? I can't understand why act done by violent extremist in a tradition should mean that a group expousing the opposite beliefs in the same tradition should keep themselves from establishing a center two blocks away from where the incident happened 9 years later. Even in the case of the Nuns, I'm sure no one would of objected if the wanted to make thier covenant two blocks away from Auschwiez instead of at it.
-Christianity was a bad example, but substitute Christianity for any organization holding less extreme versions of his own beliefs such as the NRA or The Tea Party people.