The flap over a Muslim cultural center going in a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in New York is truly frightening. As many have pointed out, the Constitution of the United States, designed to protect the rights of all, permits it, but a few other points are less well known:
1.Three hundred Muslim-Americans died in the 9/11 attack.
2. There is a strip club within the same distance from Ground Zero, and that apparently does not sully the hallowed ground.
3. Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, was a Christian, and yet there’s been no ban on a Christian presence at that site.
Singling out Muslims in this manner is an exact demonstration of how the Nazis polarized Germany before World War II. If we as a nation give up on religious tolerance, then none of us are safe. We will be imitating Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia. Aren’t we supposed to be different? We can’t have it both ways. Either we are the land of the free, or we might as well blow up the Statue of Liberty. Perhaps Fox News would like to fly an airplane into it.
Peter M. Leschak
Side Lake, Minn.
It's a simple matter of respect and common sense in my opinion. The majority of New Yorkers think it's disrespectful to the families to allow it to be built--end of story as far as I'm concerned. As far as Leschek's continued hatred of Fox News, I’d recommend that if Fox wishes to fly an airplane into the Statue of Liberty as he proposes--that they hire the same outfit Wellstone was flying. And hey, if you don't like my viewpoint, you are a racist, bigoted, hateful person unwilling to show tolerance to differing viewpoints and opinions right?
To my friend Kindbud ... I won't venture into this fray between you and Mr. Leschak, but I am curious your thoughts on the Wellstone plane crash. I recently met an author who helped write a book on it, with the assumption it was a set-up "assassination". Just not sure if that is what you had in mind or were just using it as an example of "bad flying".
I read some of the book (mostly just an outline) and found it "interesting", but perhaps a bit out there. Somewhat in the same idea as the second gunman on the grassy knoll.
Just curious ... your comment caught my eye
Paul, Sheila and Marcia were not the target of an assassination and to think otherwise is grasping at a story. Poor weather, small airport, tired crew--it's almost always several small issues or decisions that lead to these accidents. To imagine that a one term Democrat, with little "real" power would be the target of a consipracy is unrealistic. To think that someone is looking to make money in such a fashion by writing an incendiary book makes me upset. Take a look at the kooks who are still in office on both sides. Paul was fairly tame and trustworthy compared to these idiots, who seem to line up on both sides of the political spectrum and have been there for many years.
I have to disclose the fact that our family knew their family personally. I always saw Paul as an upstanding man which I'm sure skews my viewpoint. I did not agree with his politics, but that's a different story. I have a picture of Paul, Sheila and myself in D.C. around January of either '94 or 95 when I was out visiting family. I look at it from time to time which reminds me that we're all kind of looking for the same happiness in life, just with different ways of going about it.
The Steelworkers Union leaders remain convinced John Ashcroft had Wellstone killed. That's right...they still believe that and some UMD professor wrote an article to support the thesis! Only in northeastern Minnesota!?!?
There should be no Islamic mosque 600 feet from the worst mass murder in the history of the United States. Remember, the mosque represents the religion practised by the terrorists who did the terrible killings in the name of Islam. What a political victory it would be to have a 15-story Islamic center towering over the ruins of 9/11!
Would a Japanese cultural center be appropriate at Pearl Harbor? What about a German cultural center at Treblinka? It is a matter of common decency and respect for those who died and for their families that we never forget them and always remember who caused such awful suffering.