Just to Clarify

Just in case my prose was a bit too obtuse in my previous entry, I feel I should point out a few key facts:

1. I never said I hold all of Islam responsible for 9/11. I do, however, find the association between well-funded Islamic organizations and international terrorism to be disturbing and something that should be investigated further.

2. The government will not, CAN NOT, prevent the construction of the mosque. Once the zoning board ruled in their favor, the mosque has every legal standing. The point, of course, is not CAN they build a mosque there, it’s SHOULD they.

3. In my opinion the construction of a mosque in that location is inciting ill will, even violence, towards that specific house of worship as well as against other Muslim Americans. To build an Islamic cultural center in that location smacks of public opinion tone deafness. The President, by voicing his support, again shows how out of touch he is with the majority of Americans.

4. Read my post, below, again. I was, I am, protesting the construction of the mosque and the fact that anyone who speaks out, in the negative, about this issue is attacked. To call me racist, bigoted and un-American is patently unfair. I’m doing a very American thing- using words and ideas to protest.

Yesterday an MSNBC reporter compared those who disagree with the mosque construction location to the 9/11 hijackers. When I read Norah O’Donnell’s comments I said some very unprintable things. Then I read that Speaker Pelosi believes that those protesting the mosque are doing so for political aims and the “funding of those people” should be investigated.

Those people, Madam Speaker, include Harry Reid: the Majority Leader of the Senate and one of your party cohorts. Those people include as many as 70% of the American public. By insinuating that there must be some vast conspiracy going on that would allow Americans to vocalize their opposition to such an emotional issue, you show your own tone-deafness. Americans are blessed with good schools, cheap forms of communication and the 1st Amendment. That 1st Amendment that protects the right of crass individuals to build an inflammatory symbol at the location of a national tragedy also allows Americans to protest that self-same construction. We should be able to do so without threat of investigation and without being compared to mass murders.

We are the people. We are making our voices heard. You can stomp your foot and refuse to listen, but keep in mind what happens to recalcitrant toddlers who employ such actions: they get sent to their rooms for a time-out. We the people may very well send you home.