In the tradition of Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, and Timothy McVeigh, Patrick Gray Sharp, a white, right-wing, non-muslim man, age 29, attacked the police headquarters in McKinney, Texas yesterday. He was heavily armed but ultimately ineffectual in his assault involving a high-powered rifle, road flares, gasoline and ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Television pundits swiftly denounced this evil act committed by a white male Protestant and called for a ban on Baptists gathering for worship in McKinney, Texas or anywhere else in Collin County.

At the site of the attack , President Obama praised the actions of the heroes of that community but also cautioned all Americans that the foremost duty of every religious adherent, ethnic group and gender is to constantly monitor the behavior of every person like them, so they can prevent acts of extremist violence by a sole actor or a small group of them, for which, in this case, every white male Protestant in America is to be held responsible.

Critics denounced Obama for his heavy handed and overly broad blaming of a whole group for the actions of a few or even just one person. In response, television talking heads pointed out the nearly identical failed attack in Times Square for which all Muslims are correctly condemned.

"We would be viewed as hypocrites if we did not also hold all white male Protestants accountable for this heinous act yesterday in Texas" says FOX commentator Sara Palin. Muslims everywhere were, of course, in full agreement.





A heavily edited version (with my own contribution) of this article:
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/08/please-forgive-me-for-the-actions-of-extremists-i-have-never-met-who-commit-acts-of-violence-that-i-.html