Michael P. O'Connor

I’m curious, Mike. Suppose he had punched a Muslim cab driver in the face, and he was sentenced to attend services at a local mosque for five weeks. What would be your reaction to that?

Never go back? What if he wants to convert to Islam?

Trouble is that this sentence won’t work. The only thing it will do is further cement the guy in his own prejudices. We can hope that it will influence him differently, but one exposure per week, even for six weeks, isn’t going to be enough to change his beliefs. Immersion in the culture would probably do it, but this sentence isn’t going to cut it. I’m thinking someone should have given the judge a course in basic social psychology before he passed this judgment.

So, a person that hates black people must now be surrounded by them. Yes, that’ll really set him straight. Why not make him do community service in poor “black” communities where those people must judge whether or not he helped. That way he has to be sincere in helping them and perhaps will learn something. As far as ACLU, don’t forget good ole pal robertson, so don’t judge the ACLU too harshly. I think their point was that they forced him to attend a religious service, which could imply favoring one religion over another, which isn’t lawful. Freedom of religion, as I see it, means two things: 1) government can’t prefer one religion over another and we don’t follow that really (those muslim charities are rollin in the dough since 9/11, compared with christian ones). 2) you can’t influence me with your religion and i shouldn’t influence you with mine. That’s a good rule for everyone really – doesn’t it say somewhere ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’? We don’t follow that either, for more information, read material on any of around two dozen wars this country has fought in the last 250 years. That’s one every decade people.

well, there are several degrees of choices. Going to jail for 30 days didn’t seem like a good choice. It’s a similar situation if you inflate it – a year in jail or a day in a church. It’s a no brainer, but it’s still wrong. It also doesn’t help, which is even worse. And as far as ACLU, they defended KKK members and neo-nazi’s. Not because they are good people, that has nothing to do with the law (otherwise our entire government would be in jail). They’re defending them to ensure that laws are applied equally. I don’t agree with many of the things they do, but some of the things they’re working for are for our benefit.