After letting my snarky inner twelve-year-old blog on Saturday, it seemed like it was time to make note of something worth repeating, and repeating again.

For too long, the ideological (and idiot-illogical) divide in this country has kept the wrong stories in the news. We need to recall our own national character – the better one, not the one that sent Japanese-American families to internment camps, but the one that ensured freedom of religion, and cordial relations between people of different faiths.

Like the story out of Murfreesboro – supposedly a story about intolerance and hatred of The Other. But something surprising is happening there, and I’m glad to hear of it.

Murfreesboro shows its support for mosque | tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Mark West believes in freedom of religion.

That belief brought West out Monday night to a candlelight vigil in support of local Muslims in front of the Rutherford County Courthouse.

It also inspired the lifelong Baptist to make a donation to the building fund for a new mosque in Murfreesboro.

“I’m going down to Islamic Center of Nashville tomorrow and make a $100 donation,” West said Monday night. “One hundred bucks is hard to come by these days, but it’s a statement.”

West was among about 150 people to attend Monday’s night’s vigil, organized in response to the recent fire at the construction site for the new mosque. Many in the crowd held candles or signs proclaiming such messages as “We’re all in this together” and “My God is not a bigot.” They also joined in singing “We Shall Overcome.”

The gathering came two days after a fire of suspicious origin damaged construction equipment at the site of a planned mosque near Murfreesboro. Federal investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire.

There’s your real, Real Americans: turning out to show support after some damn idiot-illogical fool vandalized the site of neighbor’s new house of worship.

Via Blue Girl.