To Serve Man

ב"ה

Rod Serling was a genius. He was able to use allegory to make points about human nature without offending people. He was prescient enough to see the future from his production world in the 1950s to the 1970s. For those of you who don't know who Rod Serling was, he was the creator of "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery", among other things.

One of the more popular episodes was called 'To Serve Man' (if you haven't seen it, watch it by clicking on the link -- I will be referencing this episode).

In "To Serve Man" Aliens come to Earth with a book written in their language. The linguists were able to translate the title, which was "To Serve Man" but they were unable to translate the contents of the book. The Aliens had invited everyone on earth to travel to their planet. The main character of this drama, played by Lloyd Bochner, after being skeptical and not trusting these aliens, finally gives in and decides to check the planet out.

The episode climaxes with Bochner's character going up the gangplank to the spaceship. A colleague of Bochner's character calls to him, telling him to get off the ship -- the book, they have discovered, is a cookbook!

I was reminded of this episode when I heard what the "Ground Zero Imam" was saying, trying to explain to us (we prejudiced, uninformed lot -- whenever I hear this Imam he strikes me as being very patronizing) exactly how benign this building is; just how his "community center" (I have to tell you all, the 92nd Street "Y" this ain't!) is there to open dialogue and build tolerance.

Open dialogue and build tolerance? "To Serve Man", huh???? He tells us the "title of the book" in English, but the real "cookbook" is in Arabic. Just listen to what the man says in Arabic:

Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern. It is known that there are sets of standards that are accepted by [Muslim] scholars to organize the relationships between government and the governed. [emphasis added]

So why are we ignoring the "cookbook"? Why are we ignoring what this mans is saying to his own people in his own language? Why do we want so much to believe that these people are just like us, that they only want peace with us despite what they say in Arabic, despite the thousands murdered by them in Israel, in the US, in Darfur, in Spain, in Mumbai, I could go on all day with this (Act for America has more on this). Despite evidence to the contrary, people like self-hating Mayor Michael Bloomberg want to believe these are peace loving, reasonable people. Despite the resistance of upwards of 60% of the US population, despite the danger giving in to these enemies of peace and freedom poses, despite the threat these haters pose to our own lives and way of life, people still want to believe that all they want is "To Serve Man".

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