I am not sure how many of you know Juan Williams or watched him on NPR or Fox News. I had watched him a few times as a guest speaker on different shows. This is not really about him or his recent firing per say, it is more about reflecting on what caused the firing and if the reflection is correct.

Juan Williams was recently fired from NPR for a statement he made on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News. Williams said:

“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Personally I am not bothered by this statement, others might see it as hate speech towards Muslims or at the very least discriminatory. Does a large part of society really see this statement reflecting hate or discrimination  or fear mongering? This is an honest question, because if people do I think this event has magnified a vastly different understanding of how people feel about and understand these terms.

I am sure some people who read the statement by Williams and then see me say I don’t feel it is hate speech or discriminatory will dismiss me as a right wing nut and hater. But if you can get past that and wish to take the time to understand, I would like to explain. Maybe you agree maybe you don’t but at least we can understand the different view points.

If you could rate the level of personal safety I feel between 1 and 10, 1 being so sure of my safety that I don’t have a care in the world and 10 knowing violence to oneself is eminent, it will help me explain. If I am walking late at night through a dark part of town and I see two shadowy figures a little ways down the street I get a little more nervous and my rating on that scale goes up. I cannot actually make out the people in the distance so I don’t know their race so you cannot say it is racism. I also don’t wish any harm to fall upon those two people so I don’t think you could say I am hateful. I simply know the odds of me encountering a dangerous situation just went up. I would think most people would say or at least understand why one might say you get a little more nervous. Even if you would not get more nervous in this situation hopefully you can understand why someone may. I view WIlliams’ statement in much the same way.

Given the events which are and have been taking place in the world I think many people get nervous to fly. At least more nervous than they did pre 9/11. Even if you did not know the race or religion of the people whom execute the events of 9/11, I think a lot of people would be more nervous flying now. Why? Because most people never thought an event like that was possible before. Now we do, so our rating on our person safety meter goes up a little.

Granted Williams’ does introduce the issue of religion on all this because he talks about seeing Muslims. The term “Muslim garb” is a slang term that probably should not have been used and is disrespectful. I don’t think Williams’ hates Muslims though, nor wishes evil upon them. If you were locked into a room, which also held another person, and you knew a certain section of the group that person belongs to has openly said they wish to kill you, wouldn’t the gauge on your person safety meter go up just a little? You still wish no ill on the person but just don’t know him well enough for your concerns to be resolved. Once you get to know the person your gauge may go down and you may be perfectly happy to sit in the room and talk with them.

Is this because we think the worst of people? Maybe. Maybe those of you that don’t react this way are better at always thinking the best of people, even in these situations.

Some people say Williams is guiltily of fear mongering. This term can be defined as someone who uses fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards a specific end. I think that term can be applied pretty widely, but in order to not dilute the real meaning of the word we need to be more judicious in how we apply it. I don’t think Williams was really trying to influence the actions or opinions of anyone, he was just giving his own opinion. If he was talking about how we should ban Muslims from airplanes maybe it would apply.

I think we are too hypersensitive in this country. We don’t give people enough credit. Most people in the world are good people. Opinions may different but in a one on one setting most people can work through their differences. For some reason when we get group think or separate ourselves via technology we find it easy to insult and defame people too easily. It is time to calm down and talk.