What a shame
To the Editor,
My nephew was killed in the Twin Towers on 9/11. My son-in-law served a year in Iraq. They took all of the troops out of Iraq. Big deal. Now at the end of the year he has to go to Afghanistan. What’s the difference between these two countries that house the cowards that killed over 2800 people? It seems that we are going from bad to worse. As far as the Twin Towers goes, Manhattan has enough towers. They should build a memorial there and that’s it. Let all the world see what those cowards did on 9/11. There are still people and body parts buried under there and they are going to build on top of them. Would you build houses on top of a cemetery? What a shame. Like many others, my nephew’s body was never found.
George Marmo
Southbridge Towers
Like the 1650s
To the Editor,
With regard to the 9-11-2010 commemoration and the Islamic Cultural Center on Park Place:
The individual right to tolerance (religious freedom), given and protected by the state, supersedes the personal views and political expediency of elected and appointed officials or influential and powerful individuals.
When thus protected, tolerance constitutes a core principle in the conception of personal freedom rather than is considered a fringe or optional right in the precept of [American] liberty.
What is going on today, in the year 2010, with regard to the Islamic Cordoba Center on Park Place is identical, I repeat identical, to what went on in the 1650’s in the same geo-political provincial entity (now the NY Tri-State area.)
In this debate, the state only, as the defender of the rights of its citizens’ freedom, will be the winner over secondary local,regional, political, appointed or individual powers.
These rights were upheld by the state in the 1650’s as they will be in 2010.
Joep de Koning
The writer seeks to transform Governors Island, one of the three principal early American settlements in the 17th century, to the nation’s symbol of tolerance because the jurisprudence of tolerance was delivered onto it in 1624 thus becoming the basis for ethnic diversity in the region and the core value in the conception of American freedom.
We’re all angry
To the Editor,
To the Mosque protesters nearby on 9/11:
You are angry. I am angry. We both hate all those who cruelly, mindlessly, murderously killed all those innocent people on 9/11 four blocks away from me. I do not hate the religion and all its followers because of the actions of a very few fanatical followers. Otherwise, I would have to hate all the members of all the major religions some of whose followers have perpetrated murderous attacks against the U.S. and the world throughout history and protest their houses of worship nearby and anywhere.
On 9/11, 2001, I saw, heard, felt, and smelled it all, including seeing the flames, smoke, nose of the plane in building two, the shuddering thunder of the collapsing towers resulting in three experiences of sun-obscuring, poisonous, black clouds of the dead and debris darkening my windows like night time and leaving a thick coating outside everywhere like a volcanic eruption. In a high-rise, I lost electricity, water, phone for weeks until generator trailers were brought in, and I wore a mask for six months that could not obscure the smell of the smoldering remains of ash and bodies kept burning by the 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel Mayor Giuliani’s waiver arranged to have on the W.T.C. site for his bunker.
I also know the pain and loss of those families who lost loved ones on 9/11, since I had lost my treasured son earlier in the year who died as a result of the carelessness of a truck driver. Do I hate that driver, yes! Do I hate all truck drivers, no!
Use your justified anger to detest al Qaeda terrorists and terrorism everywhere who butcher innocent men, women and children with joy. It may give immediate, mindless release for you to shout, fume, and demonstrate against fellow Americans who want to build a cultural and religious center that happens to be located a few blocks from ground zero and happens to be Muslim, but you are missing what America stands for. Here, in life and law, only individuals are responsible and punishable for their actions. Words like, “taste” and “respect” vary and refer to clothes and manners and are not relevant. When you condemn a (religious) group for the actions of few, you open the way to the genocide, persecution that the US has ultimately avoided (and is revered for) throughout world history and why foreigners strive to live here. Political opportunists will appeal to hatred. Intelligence will appeal to reason. Make your choice. This is no tea party.
Sy Schleimer
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