The brouhaha over the proposed Muslim community center near Ground Zero, the idiot Evangelicals in Florida planning to burn Korans on 9/11/10 and the general attitude toward Muslims in America is scaring the bejesus out of me.

Do we never learn from the mistakes we’ve made in the past? So many times over the years we’ve treated groups of “others” shabbily, illegally or downright immorally (usually all three). When we do, it never goes well and it certainly doesn’t make us any safer or richer as a nation (or wiser for that matter). Yet we still do it.

But it simply seems like a very dangerous move to give our enemies any kind of fuel for their insane war against us (to be clear I am referring to fundamental Muslim extremists who want to kill and maim, not the vast majority of Muslims who simply live their lives). After all, if they already want to wipe us all off the Earth because of our “heathen” beliefs, won’t burning their most sacred text make that desire even stronger?

But  most confounding to me is how susceptible to a change in messaging the American populace is.

Some Muslims said their situation felt more precarious now — under a president who is perceived as not only friendly to Muslims but is wrongly believed by many Americans to be Muslim himself — than it was under President George W. Bush. Mr. Patel explained, “After Sept. 11, we had a Republican president who had the confidence and trust of red America, who went to a mosque and said, ‘Islam means peace,’ and who said ‘Muslims are our neighbors and friends,’ and who distinguished between terrorism and Islam.”

Regardless of the strange fact that W inspired any kind of tolerance of the “other,” how is that we have such short memories and are able to be whipped up into a new frenzy less than two years after he left office? What does this mean for the future of our country? Unfortunately, I think we’re doomed to a long time of being violently yo-yo’ed back and forth between competing beliefs. It’s an unstable way to live, and an impossible way to progress forward. But even worse, it gives those holding the controlling strings an even stronger grip.

And yet most of us don’t see it, don’t care when we do, and forget the jolt faster and faster each time it comes.