Don't Put Up with Misinformation and Rumor Mongering by Harvey Yoder

Martha note: It's Civic Soapbox Friday

I was totally dismayed by the tone of an August 26th editorial in the Daily News Record, Harrisonburg’s daily paper, titled "Is Obama a Muslim?” And equally dismayed by a recently released poll that finds that 18% of all Americans, and 46% of Republicans, mistakenly believe he is of that faith.

The editorial page writer implies there is something suspect about a President not affirming an orthodox Christianity (which President Obama actually has, by the way, more than once). The editorial states, "Even Ronald Reagan, whose sparse church attendance following the 1981 attempt on his life generated liberal bile, was a man whose public statements were clearly animated by a deep and thorough going Christian faith," as if this were a necessary qualification for being an American president. And this in spite of the inconvenient fact that the Reagans were never known for being faithful church attendees.

For anyone who believes in a strict application of the constitution, religious observance shouldn’t be an issue anyway in the selection of our president, since Article VI clearly states that "No Religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

The DNR editor missed a great opportunity to dispel growing ignorance and misinformation on the part of his readers. He could and should have simply phrased his editorial’s headline as a statement such as: “Yes, Virginia, Obama is a Christian.”

Having said that, though I am a practicing Christian myself, to me that’s less important in this conversation than the degree of respect we show toward people of all faiths and cultures, toward our Constitution, and toward the truth itself.

With regard to a previous editorial in the same paper stating that an Islamic Center should never be built anywhere near New York’s Ground Zero, I’m reminded of another simple, stubborn statement in the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” To me that’s absolutely clear, and it means we either have to support that principle for everyone or it is not secure for anyone.

Our Constitution does not guarantee that our sensitivities will not be offended when such freedoms are exercised in ways we don’t happen to like. But that makes no difference. A right is a right.

As a citizen, I am disturbed by the growing use of misinformation and rumor mongering to vilify the entire Muslim faith – a vilification that’s fueled by nonsensical editorials such as the recent one in our local paper. I would urge all of us to respond with an increased numbers of letters we submit to our newspapers, and to post regular comments on their online editions, as some of you I’m sure are already doing. We cannot afford, by our silence, to give consent to obvious forms of prejudice and ignorance.

                  -- Harvey Yoder lives in Harrisonburg

An optimistic opening . . .

Kyle Saxton is a senior at Harrisonburg High School who is serious about his art. So serious that this Saturday he's heading up to Washington to meet with colleges on a National Portfolio Day event at Corcoran College of Art & Design.

The photograph of Kyle Saxton shown above was taken at last night's opening of the Harrisonburg High School/ Eastern Mennonite High School art show at the WMRA studios. His painting/collage is a visual representation of Kyle's reaction to studying the Civil War in his AP History Class. In it is a partial text of Frederic Douglass' "The Constitutionality of Slavery," a piece of a Civil War map, a circle, some lines. There are also some figures and a shadowy face that is obviously experiencing much pain and confusion. The piece is called "Civil."

Kyle Saxton is a "special" art student at HHS, meaning he's taken all the formal art classes the school offers, but his teachers, Kelley Shradly-Horst and Jauan Brooks, keep on teaching him. In my opinion, his teachers are to be commended.

Ashton Pease, a senior at Eastern Mennonite High School, was there with friends to take a look at his first-ever, self-developed, analogue photograph. It shows a sharply focused Teddy Bear on a wall in front of a soft-focused house.

Ashton says his father takes a lot of digital photographs of his sister, who plays several sports, so he already knew how to work in digital. Ashton says he took the EMHS class because he wanted to learn the process of working with film, and that he's found that experience "awesome." So awesome in fact, that it's made him wish he could have his own darkroom.

Harrisonburg High School first year Samantha Heitsch's quite wondrous turtle was the result of an assignment: Pick an image and draw it using dots. She says it taught her a lot about creating visual detail on the page. And, she says, she likes her turtle. "It's one of the better things I've done."

Her father, Paul, was obviously proud. "She knocks me out," he says. "Since she was little, she's had this amazing gift for drawing. She carries whole pictures in her head."

To me, last night's opening was truly, truly full of promise for the future. Not only do young people still have the urge to create; our schools still provide them with the necessary instruction, time and materials to stimulate that urge. Much credit for the show goes to Eastern Mennonite High School's Barbara Gautcher, and Kelley Shradly-Horst and Jauan Brooks at Harrisonburg High School.

And hooray for Harrisonburg's Daily News Record. City Editor Rob Longley thought a high school art opening was important enough to send reporter Jeremy Hunt (pictured right, on the left, talking with Jauan Brooks) to do a story on these young artists and their young art. And their teachers. Jeremy spent real time at the opening, looking at the pieces, talking to people, really working at finding the story. This, even though he told me he's more at home reporting hard news.

So what's the difference? In talking with Jeremy, it seemed to me that we two reporters thought of hard news as writing dispassionately about what happens, while features explore why what happens happens as it does.

There was quite a big crowd at last night's opening. And it was wonderful to have it. I do hope you know that our WMRA studios are your WMRA studios--the doors at 983 Reservoir Street are open 9-5, Monday through Friday. Come by anytime. If we're not on deadline, we who work there are always happy to stop and chat with our fellow WMRAers.

The HHS and EMHS art show hangs on our walls through February.