Anderson@Large

Hallowed Ground

As the saying goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Well, sometimes a Burger King is more than just a fast food restaurant.

A recent Gawker post included a photo gallery of businesses located near Ground Zero.

The writer notes:

The mainstream criticism of the Park51 project—located about two blocks from the World Trade Center site—has been that it's "too close" to Ground Zero. This might be a valid objection, if the entire area had been closed off and turned into a shrine, and only buildings that were properly reverent to the memory of 9/11 were allowed, and everyone who worked in Lower Manhattan was in constant mourning.

But that's not the case. Blogger Daryl Lang, who works in the area, went out and took some photographs of buildings and locations that are the same distance from the World Trade Center site as the Park51 center will be. Among his findings? An Off Track Betting parlor, a Burger King, and a Vitamin Shoppe. (What better way to pay respect to the victims of 9/11 than to play the ponies and purchase some fish oil supplements?)

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, that Burger King served as the temporary headquarters of the NYPD.

No Ground Zero Mosque

Election Day is 77 days away.

President Barack Obama’s remarks about the Ground Zero mosque have turned the controversy into a campaign issue.

With Republicans opposed to the Ground Zero mosque, Democrats will be asked whether they agree with Obama or with the majority of the American people who say: Not there, not now, not ever.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is in a fight for his political life, has distanced himself from Obama.

Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley, said in a statement:

The First Amendment protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that, but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.

The latest Gallup daily tracking poll shows that more than half of Americans disapprove of Obama’s job performance.

Frank Newport, Gallup’s editor in chief, said:

It’s certainly a reasonable hypothesis that the mosque comments are a cause of his lower approval ratings and his higher disapproval.

Gallup’s latest update on congressional voting preferences finds Republicans have a seven percentage-point lead over Democrats, 50 percent to 43 percent, their best showing thus far in 2010.

The New York Times, meanwhile, reports:

The remarks were a rare instance in this campaign season when Republicans have strayed from a focus on economic issues in their push for substantial gains in the House and Senate in November. The intensity of their attacks showed that they do not appear worried about the risk of being seen as intolerant or not supportive of the right to freedom of religion.

Some leading Democrats said it was the president’s role to stand up for constitutional rights in the mosque dispute.

Democrats can delude themselves into thinking they’re standing on higher ground. Come November, they will find they are standing on shaky ground with the American people.

Ground Zero

When it comes to religion, I am an agnostic.

That said, I agree 110 percent with the 9/11 families that building a 13-story mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero would desecrate the memory of the 3,000 victims of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Americans understand that 9/11 was an attack on the U.S., not Lower Manhattan. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, Americans from Maine to California proclaimed, “We are all New Yorkers.”

On Sept. 11, I watched TV in a state of shocked disbelief. My outrage propelled me to leave my apartment and walk to the Brooklyn Promenade, which is located directly across the East River from Ground Zero.

I sat in silence with hundreds of New Yorkers. I was unaware that I was covered with ashes until police officers told us to leave. There was concern about asbestos. The dust likely contained the incinerated remains of some victims.

I volunteered at Ground Zero for six months. On one occasion, I bore witness to firefighters recovering the remains of a victim of Muslim extremists.

To this day, I have on my desk a cross fashioned out of a beam that an ironworker gave me.

New Yorkers do not want the proposed “community center.” Indeed, Cordoba House would be a bridge to nowhere.

The issue is not about religious freedom. Americans get it.

Americans know that all Muslims are not terrorists. They also know the terrorists who attacked us did so in the name of Islam.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll found that 68 percent of Americans oppose the planned mosque, including 54 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents and 58 percent of nonwhites.

President Barack Obama seemed to support the mosque in his remarks on Friday at a White House dinner celebrating the start of Ramadan:

Now, that’s not to say that religion is without controversy. Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of Lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. And the pain and the experience of suffering by those who lost loved ones is just unimaginable. So I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. And Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground.

But let me be clear. As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure.

On Saturday, Obama clarified his remarks:

I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.

Meanwhile, the latest Gallup daily tracking poll shows Obama’s approval rating has fallen to 42 percent. With a disapproval rating of 49 50 percent, Obama is standing on shaky ground.