Many of you probably don’t know but I’m a proud graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (or MTSU).

  MTSU sits in one of my favorite communites, Murfreesboro.  I lived there for about five years during my college career.

  It’s a great town and growing by leaps and bounds since it’s so close to Nashville.

  It’s also the site of something I consider to be very embarrassing, in fact I had a viewer ask me about it today.

  For the past several months (and you’ve probably seen the stories on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News or read about it on the Internet) Murfreesboro has been the center of controversy over an Islamic group building a new mosque.

  The mosque patrons have been threatened recently and the victims of vandals.

  It makes me shake my head in disgust at the very few intolerant people we have there in Murfreesboro.

  It hurts me all the more knowing the vast, overwhelming majority of folks there in Murfreesboro welcome this new mosque with open arms.

  There’s a Christian church that sits very near it and its pastor and members have come out in vocal support of the mosque.

  Yet there have been reports of hateful threatening phone calls, and a heavy piece of equipment on the site that “mysteriously” caught fire recently.

  The feds and local cops aren’t going so far as to call it an arson but the Rutherford County sheriff’s office is doing 24 hour patrols at the mosque site so I believe we can read between the lines.

  But this controversy has also brought home some of the qualities I admire about the good people there in Murfreesboro.

  Some recently organized a candlelight vigil on the steps of the Rutherford County courthouse in support of the mosque.

  There has also been many MTSU campus leaders support the Islamic center being built.

  I just hope people don’t judge Murfreesboro by a few knuckleheads.

  It’s a beautiful city with lots of beautiful people.

  Bottom line is I believe the good will win out over the hateful there in Murfreesboro.

  Most of the time nowadays clear-thinking wins out.