Three years ago, in one of the sorriest episodes of American life, a great dollop of excrement in human form named Terry Jones capitalized on a slow-news summer and the media-induced nonsense-gasm over the supposed "Ground Zero mosque" -- which was neither at "Ground Zero" nor a mosque -- by staging a ridiculous "International Quran Burning Day" in Gainesville, Fla. The media lapped it up, transformed this penny-ante discarded-rough-draft of a preacher into a celebrity, and briefly created a set of circumstances that forced then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to take time off of running multiple foreign wars to intervene.
Now, according to WTSP's Danica Lawrence, as August once again slides into September, Terry Jones wants to do it again, in a Florida town called Mulberry, at the behest of some local crackpot named Bill McKinney.
"We by no means, and never in any of the protests we have ever done, demonstrated any type of hate," said Jones, momentarily forgetting that "hate" is what has basically motivated the burning of every religious text in the history of idiots who burn religious texts. Jones also insists that his sad publicity stunt is "not about Muslims."
This is correct. What this is about is "getting attention."
And I realize that by writing about Jones, I risk giving him that, so I'll emphasize the parts of Lawrence's story that feature the people of Mulberry shunning and defaming Jones, instead:
"When I heard that, I thought, 'not in Mulberry!'" said Suzanne Carter-Moore.
Carter-Moore quickly organized a group and created a Facebook page called, "Not in Mulberry", which has generated nearly 180 likes as of Monday afternoon.
"Why would you come to little Mulberry that is peaceful and diverse?" Carter-Moore said she wonders. "We like it that way. Why come to our town and stir up the pot of hate and division?"
So there's today's Facebook Group That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity. But it gets better:
10 News talked with the Mayor of Mulberry. He said he does not support Dr. Jones, but also said McKinney's home is on the outskirts of town in Willow Oak, even though every map and address brings up McKinney's home in Mulberry. He said it is just outside, in the rural area that does not give him jurisdiction.
Literally pulling out your map and pointing out that this is all going down on the margins of your otherwise polite community? That is some quality shade-throwing, Mr. Mayor.
Obviously, this is America, and everyone has rights. Jones has the right to stage any clown-show display of his own inadequate breeding that he'd like. The people of Mulberry have the similar right to express their desire to marginalize -- not censor! -- Jones and separate themselves from him, and they are doing a very good job of it. If Jones had been properly marginalized three years ago instead of being transformed by the cable-news kliegs into a sensation, we'd have all been better off.
Lawrence goes on to note that the "Not In Mulberry" Facebook group "meets weekly at Toppers Pizza." They sound like a pretty fun and happy bunch of people.
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