Cancel the 4th, Because 'Murica!

My Facebook feed – after many strong years – has sort of turned into a news feed, or, better yet, a rant feed of reactions based on the careful placement of words in articles. People rarely realize they are being so easily manipulated or ask questions when faced with combinations of words or assumed oppressions or evil.

Sure, sometimes there is evil.

But, since most places rate their “success” on clicks, truth or actual issues are not as important as the flavor-of-the-moment panic or slanted injustice.

I saw this posting – “State Department Reschedules July 4th… So They Don’t Offend MUSLIMS” since one of my friends commented on the situation. Most of the comments were what you would expect (and hope for) if you were a spin doctor, the key words being:

• Freedom.
• Terrorist.
• Middle east.
• Unpatriotic
• Bigot.
• Prayers.
• Racism.
• Unfairness.

Some Facts
I decided to dig into this because . . . let’s face it. You got to fact check some stuff out there. Especially if you feel some type of super emotional response.

And probably if you try to categorize one group of people all as one bad thing, you’re going to want to play a little devil’s advocate.

Here are the facts:

• The rescheduling was for the American embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• American embassies are built as diplomatic missions to improve or maintain relationships with foreign countries. 
• Indonesia is in Southeast Asia.
• Southeast Asia is mostly Islam (not sure how may are practicing).
• The 7/4 falls on Ramadan which is June 17-July 17 2015.

Ramadan Facts
A little about Ramadan.

Ramadan is a time when all Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, gossip, luxuries and refocus all attention on God. Muslims during Ramadan engage in self-sacrifice in order to grant peace to anyone who has wronged them, strengthen ties with family and friends and reinvest in life by dropping bad habits and generally working to have more peaceful and productive lives, thoughts and feelings. Ramadan is pretty deep and it’s pretty significant. Stores close, a lot of typical social events are canceled (or never scheduled) and places with large Muslims populations can almost totally shut down.

I happen to love the spirit of Ramadan. Just cutting out everything to focus on God, family and becoming  a better person. How much do we have? How much do we need? How much do we give? Awesome questions.

It’s a very sacred time - and it is a known time. Sort of how everything in America closes for Christmas, stuff can shut down for Ramadan out of need or respect.

My Thoughts
I couldn't be more proud of my country for graciously choosing to celebrate our own holiday while visitors in another country outside of Ramadan. We have a freedom (yes, I used the F word) to do this.

America is a weird nation. For all our problems and situations, we are one of the most diverse nations that constantly compares itself to homogeneous nations because we want to believe we are one. We are one. One weird collection.

The American Embassy in Jakarta is an ambassador to Indonesia from America and in this one action showed the best of us. America understands how much we love to party on our independence day. But we also understood the huge significance Ramadan which affects 88% of the country’s population.

Instead of alienating and isolating an American holiday and ideal, the choice was made to move it in order to respect the culture, allow Muslims (and, in fact, all of Jakarta  to celebrate along with Americans and show – even though we mess up – we are tolerant of others and work toward compromise in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, as by the Constitution for the United States of America.