DON'T MESS WITH LIBERIA

We do live in strange times and strange things do happen in strange times. A few months ago, Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, wrote an article in the New York Times objecting to President Obama’s claim about American exceptionalism. In Putin’s view, Americans are not exceptional because we are all “God’s children.” There were two things - actually three - that struck me about Putin’s article. 

First of all, I didn’t think that since the inception of the Bolshevik communist revolution, any Russian leader, especially the former head of the brutal KGB, could believe in God. But there it was. Right there. The Russian leader calling all of us “God’s children.” Stalin must be restless in his mausoleum. Secondly, I found it a bit hypocritical that Putin was freely expressing himself in an American newspaper when most Russians cannot freely express themselves in Putin’s government-controlled media of Russia. Also, Mr. Putin didn’t know that the freedom of expression he was exercising in an American newspaper was an integral part of the American exceptionalism he was objecting to.  

Finally, I thought Mr. Putin demonstrated a misunderstanding of the concept of American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism is not the idea that Americans are better than citizens of other countries. Of course, there may be a couple of million bird brains that hold this view. American exceptionalism encapsulates all of the positive factors that make Americans a great people. These positive factors include ingenuity, determination, selflessness, and the two reasons why most people flock to these shores: unparallel freedom tethered to unparallel economic opportunities. Let me very briefly dwell on selflessness as an attribute of American exceptionalism. 

It is no secret that Americans, as a people, are exceptional in their attitudes about reaching out to each other and to other people, especially in times of crises. In my more than three decades of residing in the U.S, I have seen, time and time again, Americans rushing to the aid of other Americans after natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. The American government has done the same on the international stage in Haiti, Pakistan, Chile, and many other countries. 

The American Peace Corp is one organization through which American exceptionalism is demonstrated by ordinary Americans on an international scale. There is no other nation in the world, not even Russia, that has anything like the Peace Corp. In the mid 1970's, Mr. John Singler (now Dr. John Singler at New York University), was an American Peace Corp volunteer when he was one of my high school teachers at St. John’s Episcopal High School in Robertsport, Liberia. Mr. Singler is the teacher who had the greatest influence on my education, Because of Mr. Singler, many St. John’s graduates, including me, have a fairly good grasp of the English language. Many Africans, like me, are extremely grateful to ordinary Americans, like Mr. Singler, who have made and continue to make extraordinary sacrifices through their services in the Peace Corp. 

This article, unfortunately, is not about American exceptionalism. It is about the arrogant and ignorant behavior that gives Americans a bad name. In the title of an August 6, 2014 blog written by one Ann Coulter, she called Dr. Ken Brantly, the American missionary doctor who served in Liberia and contracted ebola, “idiotic:” 

EBOLA DOC'S CONDITION DOWNGRADED TO 'IDIOTIC' 

This is just the beginning. In the blog, she called missionary workers overseas “narcissistic,” and referred to Liberia and other developing nations as “disease-ridden cesspools.” 

Frankly, I don’t know who Ann Coulter is perhaps because I don’t follow preschool journalism. I know nothing about her intellectual endowment to which I may attribute her rude and disrespectful behavior. I can only surmise that her petulance is attributable to a gracious endowment of alarming ignorance or profound arrogance or a saintly dose of both. I do not know her political philosophy or religious affiliation or where she fits in the continuum of American social/economic class. None of these matter to me. What concerns me is her lack of grace and class in her magnanimous display of buffoonery. 

If Ann had limited her insults to Dr. Ken Brantly, Nancy Writebol, and other American missionaries, I would have been angry with her, but I probably would have ignored her just like the Brantlys and Writebols have correctly done. After all, anyone who is dumb enough to think that missionary work overseas is narcissistic deserves no acknowledgment at all; however, by extending her disgraceful and shameless behavior to Liberia and more than two-thirds of humanity, Ann Coulter deserves the appropriate intellectual down-sizing. I am extremely disheartened that this has to be done at all. So I undertake this task with a measured combination of relish and sadness.I will use comments from Ann's blog to expose the magnitude of her ignorance and her unjustified arrogance. Honestly, I cannot deal with Ann Coulter’s entire blog because I might develop brain aneurysm due to an over-exposure to dumbness. Her comments will be in italics and my response will follow. Here we go:

There's little danger of an Ebola plague breaking loose from the treatment of these two Americans at the Emory University Hospital. But why do we have to deal with this at all?

American exceptionalism, Ann, American exceptionalism; but then, if you don’t seem to understand simpler concepts like commonsense and respect for others, you are light years away from comprehending American exceptionalism. 

Why did Dr. Brantly have to go to Africa? The very first "risk factor" listed by the Mayo Clinic for Ebola -- an incurable disease with a 90 percent fatality rate &-- is: "Travel to Africa."

Again, American exceptionalism! If Ann had graduated from preschool journalism and taken the time to do some kindergarten level research before pontificating from her podium of ignorance, she would have discovered that Dr. Brantly and his crew had already saved lives in Liberia. If fact, one of the patients who had benefited from Dr. Brantly’s care was able to provide blood to aid the doctor’s recovery. Dr. Brantly and Nancy Writebol have done more good for the world than Ann Coulter would ever achieve in a million lifetimes by catering to her herds of nincompoops. 

Can't anyone serve Christ in America anymore? No -- because we're doing just fine. America, the most powerful, influential nation on Earth, is merely in a pitched battle for its soul. 

That no one is serving Christ in America anymore is absolute nonsense. Has Miss Daisy not heard about Catholic Charities, Family Promise, and the Salvation Army? Is she insinuating that there is not a single church in the United States with a community outreach program? Where does this woman live? Can an American adult really be that uninformed? It is a dizzying reality to think that if Ann Coulter’s ignorance was a mountain, Mt. Everest would be a pebble. If she had bothered to peruse the Religion pages of any newspaper, she would have certainly discovered advertisements for many Christian organizations that are serving their fellow Americans. On the other hand, maybe some American missionaries encounter people like bimboistic Ann and realize that the level of ignorance they have to deal with overseas is infinitesimal compared to the one at home. So they go to Liberia.  If America is in a pitched battle for its soul, then America must desperately be seeking redemption from the likes of Ann.  

If Dr. Brantly had practiced at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia. Ebola kills only the body; the virus of spiritual bankruptcy and moral decadence spread by so many Hollywood movies infects the world. 

I am certain that if Ann had lived during the first Christian century, she also would have condemned the Apostle Paul for taking all those missionary trips on which he risked his life and endured mob violence and false imprisonment. If Paul needed to be rescued from these adversities, the “saintly” Ann Coulter would have been there to say: “If Paul had practiced at the Temple in Jerusalem and turned one member of the Sanhedrin to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could have accomplished in Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossia, and Thessalonica.” Then, as now, Ann would have been absolutely wrong. What kind of woman is this who believes that the Great Commission is all about catering to power-brokers in luxury mansions? And she has the audacity to call Dr. Brantly idiotic? 

If he had provided health care for the uninsured editors, writers, videographers and pundits in Gotham and managed to open one set of eyes, he would have done more good than marinating himself in medieval diseases of the Third World. 

This conclusion is based on what? Ann Coulter’s Wikipedia of Self-generated Delusions? If Ann wasn’t being entertained by your own cacophony of absurdities or “marinating” in her own ignorance and delusions of importance, she would not install herself as judge of what is “more good” for the world. Or, maybe in Taliban Ann’s Westboro Baptist brand of Christianity, you are either a jihadist in her narrow-minded cultural war or you are an enemy combatant and an infidel.

Of course, if Brantly had evangelized in New York City or Los Angeles, The New York Times would get upset and accuse him of anti-Semitism, until he swore -- as the pope did -- that you don't have to be a Christian to go to heaven. Evangelize in Liberia, and the Times' Nicholas Kristof will be totally impressed. Which explains why American Christians go on "mission trips" to disease-ridden cesspools. They're tired of fighting the culture war in the U.S., tired of being called homophobes, racists, sexists and bigots. So they slink off to Third World countries, away from American culture to do good works, forgetting that the first rule of life on a riverbank is that any good that one attempts downstream is quickly overtaken by what happens upstream. 

So, according to Ann's Secret History of American Missiology, the New York Times is responsible for Americans going on mission trips. Next, she would reveal to the world that the London Times is responsible for the Pilgrims coming to these shores. Her claim is so ridiculous that it is laughable. How does one even begin to respond to such utter nonsense? The only fitting response is no response at all.

Most people don’t live on a riverbank but most people live in an intelligent community. A common rule of intelligence is: It is better to shield your intelligence by silence than to expose your ignorance by speaking. Ann chose the latter. So let me ask Miss Bimboville just one question: Who the hell do you think you are that gives you the right to insult individuals and nations? Just because you are handsomely rewarded to disseminate journalistic garbage on the American media landscape doesn’t make you an intelligent voice on any issue. Despite the wealth of goodwill stored up by American exceptional selflessness, people like Ann Coulter, with their tsunami of ignorance, quickly wash away America’s goodwill and give Americans a bad name.

People who live in the non-westernized parts of the world meet Americans like Mr. Singler, Dr. Brantly, and nurse Writebol and find it very easy to say, "God bless America." These same people come to America and then Ann Coulter opens her mouth; then they wonder: Is she really American or, like the Planets of the Apes, the product of some misguided genetic experiment gone awry? I hope uppity Ann doesn’t consider herself a Christian. For if she is a Christian, her kind of Christianity is disgusting and disgraceful.

Maybe Ann Coulter has done this sort of thing before and got away with it obviously because it did not involve Liberia. Now, Ann, take this friendly advice from me Miss Idiot Barbie: DON’T MESS WITH LIBERIA. DON’T EVER MESS WITH LIBERIA. The next time you feel the need to thump your uppity nose at any group of people, you would do well to leave Liberia alone and confine your bunkum to the intolerant nincompoops to whom you cater. I don’t know about you, but I am a Christian - a very conservative Christian. I have seen the subdue responses from other Christians regarding your article. Believe me when I say that I have also been extremely restrained in my response because of my faith. The next time you insult my country, I will meet you at the level of the jerk that you are.