On AOL News, Glynnis MacNicol writes a nice article about her thoughts on the recent outrage over the proposed mosque a few blocks away from ground zero.
MacNicol imagined that the Muslim community center would be a non-issue for New Yorkers, and instead, would be a sticking point for Sarah Palin and Americans who would never dream of stepping foot inside the dreaded five boroughs.
She was wrong. Violence and protests have spread throughout New York in the past few weeks, and what’s shocking to MacNicol and many others is that much of this anger is being generated by honest-to-goodness New Yorkers. What’s MacNicol’s reasoning for all this?
More than a few pundits these past two weeks have recalled President George W. Bush’s call for tolerance following the 9/11 attacks. But I also remember feeling at the time that the message wasn’t needed in New York as it might have been in other places. New York in the weeks and months following 9/11 was a city full of shell-shocked residents learning to live with day-to-day fear… In the aftermath of 9/11 in New York City, there was no emotional room for the sort of furor we have seen this mosque generate. None. So maybe all this current fury is really just a long-delayed, long-pent-up angry reaction to what happened… right now this ground zero mosque insanity is on the verge of becoming very scary and out of hand.
