As someone born in New York City, with family ties in the city this Ground Zero mosque controversy is disheartening.
Let's take a flashback to September 11, 2001. I was at work that day. Around 9:30 one of my colleagues came out of his office and said "a plane has hit the World Trade Center". My initial thoughts echoed what being reported on the news - that perhaps a small airplane hit the World Trade Center by accident.
Then about ten minutes later, another plane hit the other tower. Something did seem right. By the time the third and forth plans hit the Pentagon in Washington, DC and Schenskvile, PA; I knew our nation was under attack.
Back in 2001, my company had a data center at our location with CNN available. I went into the data center numerous times, but could only stomach what was on TV for a few moments each.
I had a colleague who was from the New York City metro area. We chatted, but neither of us could focus on whatever tasks we had before us.
Throughout the day, my family and I could not reach four family members due to the cellular towers coming down with the towers. My aunt (Mom's sister, and three uncles could not be reached. Fortunately for our family, all survived. But scores of other families were not lucky that day.
For me this was a teachable moment. September 11, 2001 will forever be etched into my heart and my soul as one of the darkest days in American history. I will never forget that day as my hometown was attacked. My country was attacked.
I know who attacked us. I have never forgotten, but they did. And they deny who attacked us and are trying to ignore the fact that this mosque according to Islam is a victory mosque.
I have one question for them. Did they ever think of the 9/11 families who lost loved ones that day?
Watch this video as this echoes the sentiments of the 9/11 families:
Thank You Jason!
ReplyDeleteThank you for remembering the mothers,fathers,sisters,brothers,wives,husbands,nieces,nephews,cousins and children who did not have an opportunity to ask the terrorists to stop their actions and be more tolerant!
I am a 9/11 family member, and I can't ever forget!
Jason, I agree that the issues is offensive, however, our country is based on freedoms..one of which is property rights...so if they get title to the land, and meet the required regulations put on building in NYC, then they have to be allowed to do it.
ReplyDeleteBuild it, fill it and fly a plane into it...I don't care. But if the government you so firmly believe is too much involved in your life...I understand the outrage, ...but you can not have it both ways. Perhaps this dialogue from the movie American President with Michael Douglas will help make my point..
"For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"."