Michele Bachmann is Crazy

The summer always brings out the crazy in people. I’m not referring to the Colorado shooting. Obviously that is beyond crazy, and I can’t presume to know anything about the shooter’s motives or what the victims’ families are going through.

Instead I’ll write about a topic I can presume to know something about – Michele Bachmann. I lived in Minnesota for many years, though never in her district. Bachmann is from Woodbury, which is a very white, very wealthy suburb. The last time I was out there was to go horseback riding. They have a lot of stables in Woodbury.

So, in case you missed this piece of news, Michele Bachmann went on Glenn Beck’s show last Thursday and accused Keith Ellison of being connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Keith Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress, and his district is in the northern part of Minneapolis – one of the poorer and more diverse areas of the Twin Cities Metro.

Bachmann did not go into detail about what the Muslim Brotherhood stands for, and I’m guessing that most Americans don’t know. It’s enough that it sounds bad. They actually aren’t on the State’s Department list of foreign terrorist organizations, but there are a lot of allegations that they have connections to Hamas. Keith Ellison himself is fuzzy on the details about their organization, but he does know that Mohammed Morsi, the newly elected president of Egypt, is a member. We’re just going to have to wait and see what that means for Egypt, us, and the rest of the world. Oh, and by the way, Ellison is not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ellison says she just wanted attention, and that’s why she made these allegations. Well, if she wanted attention, she got it. Bullies are good at getting attention. They go around, slinging mud, and people notice because they don’t want to get hit with the mud themselves. It’s dangerous when we make accusations without even explaining the significance of the accusation itself. And it’s sad that the word “Muslim” can carry so much weight.

Meanwhile, my house is in its own form of craziness. Monty is preparing to leave for D.C. tomorrow (work trip), Abby is throwing tantrums whenever we insist she take off her new black tutu, and Noah is teething. But this of course is normal craziness. I know that’s an oxymoron, but it’s also the very best kind of craziness there is. And especially after the events of the week, I’m grateful.