This blog

I've been having trouble writing on this blog.  It goes back to what my instructors/professors drilled in my brain about writing for the reader and knowing your audience.

I've been struggling with what and how to write what I want to say.  I've been wanting to write about the Mosjid in New York, about the yahoo paster in Florida burning Qu'rans and other such matters, and I just couldn't form the words in my head about the subjects like I usually do.  It was like the lovely, poor group of protesters in Pakistan (I believe).  Lovely because they were protesting the burning of the Qu'rans - which, from all reports, was because their lives are all about God, and family.  Poor because they live in an area where they have no instant connection with the world. Which leads us to why they were protesting: The burning of the Qu'rans in Florida.  They hadn't heard that the burning had been cancelled.  Whoa.  Wait a minute.  That was startling to me, but then I thought about it, and just how common-place it is for us to get instant news.

Example: The gas main blow-out in San Bruno, CA.  It happened, and it was all over the news.  If I am not mistaken, the local news stations dumped the prime time shows to cover the explosion.  So what has been happening that I've discovered that I cannot seem to stand -- instant & continuous coverage.  Instant, as soon as it happens.  Continuous being the ongoing incessant coverage despite no new information and the fact that the news people have covered the same information repeatedly for the last two hours.

I'm the first to admit that I am a news jumkie, but when something like this happens, I cannot stand to watch the news for a week or two.  I can't stand to see the same images that have already been burned into my brain to the point of dreaming about them at night.  I already have enough problems sleeping at night, I don't need to see the images of houses burning in my head to make things worse...

But it has become commonplace for so many of us in the world.  The instant news of a plane crashing halfway around the world, and the subsequent loss of life.  So when I hear about how someone didn't hear the Qu'ran burning was canceled and even held a protest where two members of the community were shot and killed over the protest, well, it just blows my little mind.

So then I was thinking about how many of the people in the Muslim World do not understand how it could be acceptable for someone to burn books in protest in this country.  Or how people could be allowed to protest without the police shooting into the crowd.  I realized that they should be my audience.  I don't know how many would read this little blog, or if they would even want to but I now have an audience to go for.  My voice can be the bridge between the Muslim World and the American one.

Now I need to go warm up my voice....

In the meantime, have a lovely day....