Falwell -- keep your mouth shut

If a North American Monarch butterfly fresh out of its cocoon flaps its wings at 10 beats per minutes, will it make the storm system brewing in the South Pacific stronger than normal?\nIn a similar sense, can what you said or did two weeks ago affect lives in a country 3,000 miles away?\nJerry Falwell flapped his tongue on CBS's 60 Minutes a week ago, and started riots in India and other parts of Southeast Asia. Falwell told the 60 Minutes interviewer that he had studied much Islamic and non-Islamic history and had become convinced that Mohammed, the main prophet of Islam, was a terrorist. \n"Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses," he said. "I think Mohammed set an opposite example."\nWith that, Hindus and Muslims resumed the fighting in India, A fatwa (Islamic religions edict) was issued on Falwell's life, and he was simultaneously condemned by 10 different governments including Britain. Statements of discontent were sent by, of all people, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Churches. (Imagine that, a pro-Jewish organization calling for the rebuttal of an anti-Islamic comment. Maybe there is hope for the world after all ...)\nIn any case, Falwell issued an apology for the remarks, but the damage has already been done. In India, five people were killed. \nThis is just more real-world proof that as a member of humanity, you are partly responsible for what happens to the people around you, and I would like to see more people take that responsibility seriously. \nBacktracking a few years to the beginning of the terrorism buzzword, if crazy idiots hadn't begun blowing things up under the guise of a perverted Islam, real Muslims wouldn't have it so bad today. Real followers of Islam wouldn't have to respond to Falwell style remarks or have to answer questions about what a jihad is if insane posers looking for an excuse to be mad at someone had never shown their faces to the world.\nSticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. This is normally true, unless you shoot off at the mouth like a machine gun, spreading your bullets of ignorance and hate. With that kind of firing rate, your ignorance bullets are bound to hit someone.\nThis lesson can be applied even here in Bloomington. For example, roommate arguments are notorious for escalating into miniature World Wars. With a little diplomacy and less name calling, most situations can be fixed fairly quickly. I was walking through a hallway in my dorm when I encountered the most fluid output of expletives I had ever heard. An audience had gathered in the hallway to witness the verbal thrashing of a girl because she called another young lady a foul name. I guess she hadn't expected such a vigorous reaction to her comments, because her target reacted with such fervor that she ran into the other's room, cornered her, and continued to yell expletives in her face. The poor Resident Assistant just stood at the door, waiting for the tirade to die down so she could ascertain the problem.\n I speculated what futures were altered by the fighting: The RA, having had to stop what she was doing to referee the fight, may have been removed from important study, and subsequently did poorly on her test the next day, causing her to change her major. The fighters, having expended so much energy fighting, woke up late and had to run to class, missing the chance to meet with their future husbands that would have happened had they been walking to class on time. A girl who stood and watched the fight had a suppressed memory come to surface in her mind, and she subsequently began to watch "The Shining" nonstop ...\nThese speculations of course are quite farfetched, but who knows what positive outcomes were stopped in their tracks by that open display of disdain? For the sake of your future, and everyone else's around you, please, think before you act and react.\nNow that butterfly hurricane idea doesn't seem so silly anymore.