Ground Zero Point Five
As a New Yorker (adopted, it's true, but after nearly 40 years I think I've got the NY Spirit!) it is doubly annoying to hear all of the nonsense spouted about the "Ground Zero Mosque" -- in particular the suggestion, as Senator Cornyn put it, that it is being built "in the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as the result of a terrorist attack."
In fact, 51 Park Place is two blocks away from the nearest corner of the WTC site. The building at that address was not destroyed in the attack -- after all, it just missed being designated a landmark! Similarly annoying are the claims that this is somehow "sacred ground." Utter nonsense, unless one considers Burlington Coat Factory sacred.
I will not go into the larger issues of freedom of religion and the apparent inability of some to appreciate that Muslims also worked at the WTC, and do work in the Financial District, and that the cultural center proposed (including the mosque) is meant to be a resource for healing and understanding. I simply want to expose the geographical ignorance of those who think this building is part of the WTC footprint, or even all that close to it. Visit NY some time, and walk our streets -- they are a rich mosaic of cultures and peoples.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
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11 comments:
Any fool could Google Map the truth, but then they would know they were out right lying through their teeth.
Dah-veed, that's what I find so troubling: that those who claim the moral high-ground are so often liars.
Y'know, if George W. Bush had anything even vaguely resembling integrity, he could put an end to this entire issue by making a public statement that he supports the Constitution of the United States of America, regardless of the attacks of Karl Rove, Sarah Palin and other anti-Constitution activists.
Timothy McVeigh, a Christian extremist blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Bldg. in Oklahoma City. To my knowledge, no one suggested we shouldn't build any churches in the vicinity of the bombing. It would have been a preposterous suggestion. They knew McVeigh's actions were antithetical to Christianity. Somehow though, when Islamic extremists are responsible, we can justify all sorts of prejudice.
Hear, hear.
David, David, David. Haven't you learned by now that facts only get in the way of the propaganda?
Well said!
Geography schmeography.
wv = matin
(almost morning prayer)
A friend who lived in Chelsea in 2001 said that what he found so troubling about the responses of non-New Yorkers to the attack was the dominance of anger and the seeming lack of grief.
Fr. Daniel, I lived near the Pentagon in 2001. We were stunned and grieving, not angry. It was eerie to have National Guardsmen patrolling outside my downtown DC office, too. Only my friends in NYC understood.
For the record, this area has a good number of Islamic Centers. Then again, I doubt that many sane people consider the Pentagon as "sacred ground."
"Y'know, if George W. Bush had anything even vaguely resembling integrity..."
Dreamer!
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