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| Anniversary now an insincere publicity circus (977815) | |||
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Anniversary now an insincere publicity circus |
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Posted by SUBWAYSURF on Sat Sep 11 11:28:15 2010 By Ellis HenicanI’ve begun to dread these 9/11 anniversaries. Do they really have to come every year? It isn’t just the innocence thatwas lost that day. That will never be recaptured. It isn’t even the lives that were lost. We have far better ways of honoring those. But nine years after the planeshit the towers, these anniversary commemorations have been robbed of all their authenticity. And just wait till next year! Schmaltzy TV specials. Cheap emotional pageantry. Political pandering of the crassest sort. This is no way to remember something so tragic. This year, the 9/11 conversation has been dominated by two nasty little stories, classic lowest-common-denominator affairs. The uproar over a mosquetwo blocks from Ground Zero. nd the hype surrounding a Fla. pastor’s threato burn Qurans making an angry standagaist religions diversity. ]Thrusting some fringe clergyman’s press release to the top of the news. This is what the season has sunk to? The debate over the proposed Cordoba Initiative’s Park51 Islamic cultural center on Park Place was New York’s contribution to the anniversary thickheadedness, although it really wasn’t fueled by New Yorkers’ ire. Most people here understand that all faiths are welcome in the city and live side by side. We also know that the commercial blocks of lower Manhattan are many things, but sacred ground isn’t one of them. The New York Dolls strip club is closer to the former World Trade Center than this mosque will be. It was out-of-towners and suburban politicians who found an audience for these attacks. . But leave it to Terry Jones to sink even lower than chasing houses of worship away. The Florida pastor, whose church has maybe 50 members, had vowed to commemorate the terror attacks with a bonfire of Qurans. That lit up the phones on talk radio and roared right to cable TV. Gen. David Petraeus said we were handing our enemies a propaganda victory. Even the president was drawn in. (Jones said Thursday he wouldn’t rule out the Quran burning after claiming the imam lied to him about moving the mosque.) Next year, let’s note 9/11 quietly, each in our own personal way. Let’s ignore the pandering politicians and the publicityseeking men of God. Something important happened on Sept. 11, something more important than all this silliness. E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow him at twitter.com/henican. copy right newsday |
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