As the cowardly line up to milk the political advantages of either outright opposition to the Islamic cultural center/Ground Zero mosque or support for a ‘compromise’ entailing giving in to bigotry, it is remarkable that the one voice of unambiguous principle to be heard is that of Mayor Bloomberg. Perhaps it’s easier to be amibitious and principled when you possess 15 billion dollars, but Bloomberg could just as easily have opted to pander to backwardness like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or Governor Whatsisname. But he didn’t and as a result looks and sounds—I hate to say it—downright presidential.
Some day, we will look back at this shameful episode and wonder how people could have sold their constitutional birthright to the mob so easily. Bloomberg set out in a second courageous speech that the pressure to move the Sufi mosque would hurt the U.S. image abroad and simply kick the problem down the road. ‘How big should the no-mosque zone be?’ asked Bloomberg, raising an excellent practical and conceivably legal question.
Meanwhile and not surprisingly, we have what appears to be our first anti-Muslim assault today in New York. The victim is a 25-year resident of the U.S. whose four children were born here. Great way to celebrate the obvious superiority of the USA over all other countries and nations known to history.
First but probably not last. Let’s see if the loonies rally to the defense of the assailant, a 21-year-old drunk. After all, he didn’t piss on a Koran first, so it can’t be a hate crime.
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