Anniversaries. What good are they? It's 9/11 again. For the ninth year we sit and watch the towers fall at ground zero. We watch the brave responders do what they do. We watch bodies fall from hundreds of feet. We will not, we cannot forget. We remember every detail of our day on Sept. 11, 2001. Do we get less emotional after 9 years? Maybe. But this year is different. This year, the lines across our ideologies seem sharper, more defined, even as many voices blur our hearing. Tolerance, rights, call it what you will. I get the idea skepticism is a new four letter word. Trust is the new tolerance. If we doubt the intention of those who want a mosque next to ground zero, we are labeled intolerant- phobia- laced bigots.
The Iman who insists the mosque must go right into the heart of ground zero is now 'warning' us that to resist will inflame extremists to violence. And my short answer is "What's your point?" When did we not inflame extremists? I am embarrassed by the quaking of knees all over this country that we might offend our enemies.
Look, we just want to exercise our rights of protection from extremists. And our critics will demand, "how do we know the mosque would harbor extremists?"
How do we know they would not?
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