Bill Maher was (Whi..) Right, but he was Wrong

Last night while watching Real Time with Bill Maher and Mr. Maher addressed the Berkeley Commencement speech issue on his show, he mentioned that he only stated facts and he also mentioned how even an Islamic man mentioned that he was not a bigot.  That was actually very “White” of him, not right.  Mr. Maher’s argument last night was that even though Islam is supposed to be a peaceful religion, people’s rights are denied in Islamic countries.  On the show he used examples of how choosing a Christian religion or being homosexual would not be accepted in the Muslim part of the world.  And, in a lot of Islamic countries, that is a fact.  Also, even though it was not last night, he has mentioned, we treat our women better.  By “we” he meant Western culture, not religion. 

And, it is true that if I decided to change from a Presbyterian (which I am) to a Muslim.  My family might not be thrilled, but I am not going to lose my life over it.  And, the same thing would happen if I became a Lesbian tomorrow.  But, that has not always been true here, and in some places in the United States, it still isn't true.  The Western culture does treat their women (Why do I feel like saying Women folks??) better.  But, it didn't just happen, a lot of women and men fought for that, and they still are fighting, because women are not treated equally here, just better.  And, the same goes for race, sexuality, religion and freedom of speech.  We have made more progress than the Islamic nations, and we are definitely further ahead than Jihadists, but that is because the Jihadists want to go back in time.  Jihadist have a time in Islamic culture that they have romanticized (even though it is through violence) where everything in the world was the way it “should be”.  It was a time where the Islamic culture was considered the most civilized, well respected, admired and feared.  And, the Western culture (a.k.a. the infidels) were the barbarians.  But, that time has passed. 

So, where is Bill Maher wrong? Well, it isn’t his fault; in fact many will disagree with what I say now.  See, in our country, we had Founding Fathers who had ideas of creating a free country and the they wrote a Declaration of Independence, which said that “all men have unalienable rights” and we state things like “all men are created equal”.  So it is normal for him to have those beliefs.  But, honestly, it has been: “all men will be created equal in 100+ years or so” or “look even though we haven’t quite met our own standards, we are ahead of those people over there.  Don’t we get points for that?”  And, the answer is no.  Look if it were a test, the US would get a 60 percent, because we are still fighting to become the standard that we created.  The Islamic nations would get a 40 and the Jihadists would get a 2% heading towards a -5% against our standard.  But when it comes to grading, we all failed.  Does it mean I would rather be there, absolutely not?  But, that would be the argument, it always has been offered, at least by bigots.  Right now, I am in a country that is closer to meeting the expectations that were set many years ago.  But, we as a people don’t like to hear that we are not sticking to the ideals that we set.  That was why our First Lady, Michelle Obama, got in trouble before she became the first lady.  When she said that she was finally proud of her country, it was twisted into she had never been proud, when all she was really doing was celebrating our country taking a leap forward.  Until we meet our own standards, we can’t judge nations and groups who in some ways really haven’t even started setting their own standards and expectations, much less follow them.