While he let Shabazz ramble on about America's alleged crimes and supposed hatred of Muslims, Geraldo not only interrupted me repeatedly, but also gave me some simply bizarre responses, as if he had already written out his responses to what he thought I was going to say and was determined to stick to his script no matter what I said. So when I said that Daisy Khan had been the one who said that the mosque would break ground on September 11, 2011, Geraldo responded by asking me sarcastically if I was saying this was some big conspiracy. Conspiracy? What's a conspiracy about a public announcement, reported in the Daily News and USA Today, that they'd break ground on September 11 of next year?
But it was that kind of night. Geraldo didn't seem to care how nonsensical, rude and ignorant he had to be to do it, he was just determined to portray me and those who agree with me as "extreme." It was yet another example of how out of touch with the American people the mainstream media has become.
Well, Geraldo, we are not all extremists. We are not going away, either. Defending America is not extreme. Truth has become extreme. Truth is the new hate speech. The lies that Geraldo and others like you tell about us, and the boxes you push us into, become more obvious to more people every day. Our rally, attended by tens of thousands (just look at the pictures) that you dismissed as 1,500 is a case in point. You can pretend those people don't exist, Geraldo, but they do. We do. And we're going to keep fighting to defend our country, whatever you call us, and whatever lies you tell.
Redemption came when I left the FOX news building and there was a woman standing outside watching the show on the outdoor screens. She came right up to me to shake my hand. She said, I agreed with everything you said. You were the best one on there. "Geraldo is going a little ......" and then she motioned with her finger to her head in a circular motion and made the cuckoo gesture. Bingo.
UPDATE: Much thanks to Gerry. We received more requests to join SIOA on Facebook than any other single day since its inception.
UPDATE: Reader email:
Dear Pamela:
I've just been watching you on FOX News with Geraldo. It is very difficult for sane voices such as yours to prevail in today's grotesque atmosphere. You are fighting directly with half a century of highly evolved, organized political correctness of all western societies, that have been monstrously deformed and hijacked by what I have long called The New Stalinism. Among its chief features are what I term "post-imperial guilt" (of European countries in particular, such as my native UK as well as France, Germany, Holland, and others), and a strange, and self-damaging cultural proclivity to apologize for everything in our civilization because it is apparently and supposedly a source of disgrace and distress to the entire world.
I am wondering whether this mosque affair around Ground Zero is the thin end of the wedge: the harder we argue against the mosque, the more their smiling, sneering, manipulative and misleading leaders insist it is damn well going to be built because it will be a source of peace and harmony. Well, we shall see. But if the fight to relocate it is lost, I am quite certain we shall have one more nail in the coffin of America and be one step closer to Sharia Law in the U.S.
You do brilliant, difficult, dangerous work against growing odds. You give a voice to people such as us who are at risk of being entirely disenfranchised (if not one day prosecuted) by our own politicians and government as well as the media (who have no morals and never have). As does Geert Wilders. As do many of your ilk. It's more than I could ever do myself. But I offer you moral support with every ounce of fiber of my being and I wish you well and safety always.
Jonathan ("Jonny") Sacks
