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The Suicide of America
By Doug Patton
January 14, 2002

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved." - William Jennings Bryan

When the plague of AIDS burst upon the scene in the United States two decades ago, it was known as "gay cancer" and "Gay Related Immune Deficiency" (GRID). But this was the first affliction in the history of disease to be assigned its own set of civil rights, and in very short order, a preventable health crisis became a cultural football at the leading edge of the political correctness movement. The disease was simply "acquired," and we were all told that it was everyone's problem.

Contrary to all logic, the epidemic created not a backlash but a wave of sympathy for the very "lifestyle" that had brought it about. With a heavy dose of propaganda from a sympathetic media, tolerance of homosexuality was replaced by acceptance. Acceptance brought with it a heretofore unknown level of curiosity and experimentation, especially among the young, and the contagion continued to spread.

By the 1990's, acceptance had been replaced by promotion. An unprecedented campaign to promote homosexuality as normal, natural - even stylish - was born. A lethal combination of bisexuality, intravenous drug use and a tainted blood supply introduced the virus to heterosexuals - even children.

All along the way, through every phase of the propaganda barrage, gay rights advocates continued to decry ever worsening conditions for homosexuals in America. We were told that to challenge the conventional wisdom that "everyone is at risk" was intolerant. We were guilty of "bigotry" and "hate speech" if we didn't understand why a man who had engaged in deviant sex with five hundred male partners was every bit as much a victim as Ryan White, the brave teenager poisoned by a blood transfusion.

American schools, dominated by radical thinking and leftist social engineering, became indoctrination camps, where our children were told that the way to avoid AIDS was to engage in whatever form of "safe sex" they felt led to pursue.

Terrorism is to Islam what AIDS was to homosexuality.

Just as the AIDS epidemic should have sent us all scurrying for a course in good old common sense - not to mention values - so, too, the terrorist attacks on America should have brought us to a point of realization about immigration policy, cultural identity and religious belief.

Instead, Islam has become the new focus for "tolerance," just as homosexuality was, and once again, the public schools have become the vehicle to indoctrinate the next generation of Americans.

Exhibit "A" is the new public school course being taught in Brentwood, California, wherein seventh graders are being required to attend an intensive three-week course on Islam. In this course, students are mandated to learn the tenets of Islam, study the important figures of the faith, wear a robe, adopt a Muslim name and stage their own Jihad.

Nowhere in the course is there a disparaging word about this repressive religion that keeps its adherents, especially women, in cultural bondage and spiritual darkness. Islam is presented as a miraculous and positive force, and its "holy" Koran an inspired work of God.

Meanwhile, for three decades, the ACLU and its ilk have attacked and maligned Christians who only wanted the freedom to express their faith in the public square. Can you imagine the outcry if a public school teacher assigned students the task of learning The Ten Commandments, dressing like Jesus, taking the name of Moses and carrying out their own private acts of evangelism?

Part of the blame for this latest public school outrage can be laid squarely at the feet of President Bush. For all his competent leadership in executing the war against terror in Afghanistan, he has exhibited an astonishing lack of discernment in his attitudes toward Islam here at home. To state once that those who perpetrated the attack on America were extremists who do not represent the vast majority of Muslims would have been fine. To repeat ad nauseam the refrain that "Islam is a great and peaceful religion" was unnecessary. Inviting Islamic leaders (some of whom were known to sympathize with terrorism) to the White House was a misguided display of political correctness.

If America continues on this path of self-hatred, bartering our culture for the approval of our enemies, when the history of 21st Century is written, the epitaph will read, "death by suicide."