Ignorance is Bliss?

The latest from the "Why Ignorance is Great" file:

Boing Boing (and most of the rest of the web) has reported that, a few days ago, Texas State Rep. Betty Brown (R) proposed that Americans with Asian names should change their names so that "Americans" can handle the names better. This came after news that "some Americans of Chinese descent were turned away from the polls because the names on their ID didn't match with the incompetently assembled voter lists."

Ignore, for the moment, the obvious fact these people ARE Americans (they are trying to vote). Ignore, also, the other obvious fact that they are doing MORE for their country than about 50% or more of us because they are actually TRYING TO VOTE. (Even for the presidential election, the most well-attended, we barely get above 50% turnout.) Beneath this stupidity lies a certain attitude. This type of attitude - specifically, "don't ask me to learn anything new" combined with the galling assumption that if people look or sound different from you, they must not be Americans - is very similar to the attitude that helps perpetuate religions.

All one has to do to see the parallels is look at the 1,000s of denominations within Christianity. How easy it is to imagine that same idiot politician saying something like, "Those Catholics should change their rituals and belief systems so that we 'Christians' could have an easier time in dealing with them?"

UPDATE: After a technical issue and an absence, I have had to re-post all of my old posts. As a result there will be many posts listed as published today, Dec 3, 2009, that were posted sometime earlier in the year, but I do not know the exact date. this post is one of them.