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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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Romney is an idiot

Mitt Romney’s campaign manager is probably throwing back the whiskey shots — anything to get over the fact that his candidate is a moron. As the current presidential administration has proved, money doesn’t buy brains.

Instead of standing apart from his Republican counterparts in the race for the presidency, Mitt Romney showed intolerance for a portion of the American population in a move that could haunt the candidate.

When asked whether he would consider qualified American Muslims for his cabinet, he said no. The hypocrisy is blatant — Romney is ruling out 7 percent of the American population solely on their religious beliefs. This is more than the 5.5 percent that are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I imagine Romney is thankful that Richard Nixon didn’t rule out his father in 1969 when the old man was appointed Secretary of Urban Housing and Development. God knows what the country thought about LDS people then.

The ignorance in Romney’s statement, compounded by his minority status, is going to be a tough hole to climb out of — especially if he makes it to the general election. How can voters think that such narrow thinking and broad generalizations are going to help relations in the Middle East?

It’s well known that jihadists do not fairly reflect the majority of Muslims, and I highly doubt that there are many jihadists on the radar for a cabinet position. Yet Romney would rule out the entire Islamic faith when looking for ideas on anything.

Mitt should know that we need good ideas now, no matter where they come from. Whether about energy policy, a balanced economy or the war in Iraq, there is no surplus of good ideas, and we shouldn’t be limiting the pool they come from based only on what book someone reads in church. Who knows, there could be a chance that someone who is somewhat familiar with Muhammed might be able to help us find out what makes these “terrorists” tick.

Do I need to tell you, Mitt, that there are some wackos reading the same book that you read on Sunday? I know, their Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints belief system is skewed from your own and they are blasphemous. Islamic Americans are trying to say the same thing about jihadists half a world away.

Mitt continued to dig his hole when he justified his comment by likening the war on terror to World War II and Muslim Americans to Japanese Americans.

There goes that vote.

Maybe a person of Japanese origin could have dissuaded Truman from killing 200,000 people with the atomic bomb. Of course, we could just nuke Iraq and Iran — Syria, too.

The path to finding a solution to this conflict will involve human interaction. It will be a matter of understanding people’s differences and their passions. Granted, I haven’t ventured far from the United States, but I’d wager that the shopkeeper in Iraq or Afghanistan wishes for pretty much the same things I do. Knowing that our daughters and sons are safe from being killed by a bomb on the way to school is one of them.

In order to gain ground against radical Islam, it must be marginalized to the fringes of Islamic society to the point where extremist groups would wither from the lack of membership. The only way to do that is to understand the religion and culture on a personal, human level. That won’t be achieved by distancing ourselves from the Islamic faith.

Mitt screwed up on this one. Seems pretty obvious that he should’ve kept his mouth shut and been vague about filling cabinet positions 13 months from now. We’re finally getting rid of the idiot in the White House — we don’t want four more years of stupidity.

What he should’ve said was, “I understand the disillusionment of Muslims in America. My religion has also been subjected to stereotypes and fallacies. Yet, if we’re ever supposed to live peacefully, we need to learn and understand each other’s cultures and beliefs. We may then find out that we’re really not that different after all.”

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  • R

    Richard RieseApr 12, 2022 at 6:22 am

    Agree with this except atomic bombing of Japan.
    After a horrific war, the brutal Japanese military refused to surrender. It was a “million” US Soldiers or a “million” Japanese.
    They made their choice ,Truman made ours. Only God can judge those decisions.

    Reply