{"id":4133,"date":"2015-01-08T07:54:33","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T12:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4133"},"modified":"2015-01-08T15:34:34","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T20:34:34","slug":"it-is-what-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4133","title":{"rendered":"it is what it is"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FullSizeRender\"<\/a>Longtime friends of the Intramuralist will be familiar with my lack of fondness for the term, “it is what it is.”<\/em> My opinion is based on the inherent reality that \u201cit\u201d<\/em> is always something more. “It is what it is”<\/em> is what we say when we don’t know what else to say… \u00a0like when Ted Turner didn’t want to elaborate on his multiple divorces, saying, \u201cI regret that I wasn’t more successful with my marriages, but it is what it is\u201d…<\/em> or after the NBA’s Pacers and Pistons brawled in the stands, and guard Reggie Miller said, “Obviously, you never want to see something like that happen, but it is what it is.”<\/em><\/p>\n

We claim \u201cit\u201d<\/em> to be \u201cwhat it is\u201d when there\u2019s more to the situation than we either can — or want — to divulge. Today the Intramuralist advocates for the respectful calling of what \u201cit\u201d<\/em> actually is…<\/p>\n

Yesterday, most of us saw that Islamic terrorists shot and killed 12 persons at the Paris office of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Four of the magazine’s well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed. The weekly newspaper is known to be irreverent, anti-religious, and left-wing. While they have been threatened, hacked, and even fire-bombed by those taking issue with their satire of Islam, the publication\u2019s shtick is to poke fun at all religion.<\/p>\n

Note that I called the gunmen \u201cIslamic terrorists.\u201d I call them \u201cterrorists\u201d because the men created terror by gunning down innocent victims. I call them \u201cIslamic\u201d because witnesses said that they heard the gunmen shouting “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” and \u201cAllahu Akbar” (“God is Great” in Arabic)<\/em> during the the attack.<\/p>\n

In response, Pres. Obama initially called the attacks “violence,” but then invited the press into the Oval Office and condemned the \u201chorrific shooting.\u201d An\u00a0official White House press release then called it a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d and noted how France \u201chas stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world.\u201d Sec. of State John Kerry called it a \u201cvicious act of violence.\u201d Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson said that the \u201cterror threat is complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

They each agreed with the identification of terrorism. They each also omitted one specific adjective. Simultaneously (based on this observer\u2019s very informal perusal),<\/em> ABC News, CNN, FOXNews, and Reuters were identifying the attack as both “Islamic\u201d and \u201cterror.”<\/p>\n

Friends, I understand the need to be cautious and not to incite. Such is part of the reason I\u2019ve been respectfully critical lately of some specific, civil activists. But why the omission of the specific, motivation here, actually articulated by the terrorists?<\/p>\n

For the past 13 years, our one nation under God has been more intentional in rooting out the terror that passionately desires to destroy us. We can\u2019t, however, be victorious in that pursuit if we are unwilling to call \u201cit\u201d<\/em> what it is. “It”<\/em> is Islamic terrorism. As even the oft disrespectful TV host Bill Maher articulated last fall, “Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you leave the Christian religion you should be killed for it. Vast numbers of Christians do not treat women as second class citizens. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe if you draw a picture of Jesus Christ you should get killed for it.\u201d<\/em> Maher added that to claim that Islam is like other religions is “just naive and plain wrong.” He\u2019s calling \u201cit\u201d<\/em> what it is.<\/p>\n

Please know I would never knowingly advocate for disrespect. I do believe, though, that in order to root out this obvious evil, we must first be willing to call \u201cit\u201d<\/em> what it is.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime friends of the Intramuralist will be familiar with my lack of fondness for the term, “it is what it is.” My opinion is based on the inherent reality that \u201cit\u201d is always something more. “It is what it is” is what we say when we don’t know what else to say… \u00a0like when Ted … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “it is what it is”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[493],"class_list":["post-4133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-charlie-hebdo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4133"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4140,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4133\/revisions\/4140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}