RE: 9/11 mosque sparks controversy, Sept 6th
The fomentation of phony rage by the erroneously named “Tea Party” and their ilk regarding the ‘mosque’ controversy (because it is hard to get people angry about a “community centre” I suppose) demonstrates two things: 1) that those on the far right of the American political spectrum (Republicans) have nothing of substance or policy to run on during an election year against the centre-right (Democrats) and 2) the line between ghosts and straw-men when it comes to political demagoguery is quite thin.
Unspoken in this ‘debate’ of who has the right to speak of cultural sensitivity, of what tolerance in America 2010 truly means, of who gets to “claim” the events of September 11th is the 55,000 square feet of “retail space” (as listed on the Freedom Tower website) available WITHIN Ground Zero itself (and not blocks away like the proposed community center).
Nothing speaks more to the commemoration of the dead than being able to buy Nike shoes, American Eagle t-shirts, and Levi jeans on top of their remains. Television satirist Stephen Colbert, tongue firmly planted into cheek, said it best during his Aug. 12 broadcast, eviscerating the vitriolic rhetoric of degenerative discourse: “Every permit granted to a mosque is denied to an American house of worship—the mall.”
True profanity does not come merely from ignorance; acquiescence to ignorance in the name of profit or political gain lurks behind everything wrapped up in the American flag buttressed with the rubble from the World Trade Centre buildings.
— T.A. Pattinson
