Mark L. Feinsod

As you are probably aware, this past weekend was September 11th.  As you may or may not remember, this traumatic event was such a huge assault on our principles of religious liberty, freedom of speech and the right to get fat without being forced to think about where our food comes from that it changed the way we as a nation view ourselves and treat each other.

We have come together as one nation.  Old divisions be damned.  We are Americans.  One country.  One soul.

What better way to commemorate this than by protesting the right of weird-looking swarthy people who are trying to foster understanding?  What better way to drum up controversy than by erroneously referring to it as a house of worship?

As the artist Molly Crabapple astutely noted in a tweet this past weekend, why is it that the only part of New York the Sarah Palins and Newt Gingrichs of the world care about is the part where two-thousand people died?  Those buffoons on the right take every chance they get to paint our fair city as a hellish cauldron of gay marriage loving, espresso sipping Communists intent on raping your children that, to be honest, I’m surprised the Tea Party hasn’t built a memorial to the 9/11 hijackers.

Why has religious extremism done nothing but encourage more, different religious extremism?  Why are people who are moderate and reasonable always on the defensive?

I can’t answer that, but I’m just sort of waiting for the moment when the Republican Party puts up a horse as a candidate for the Senate.  And he wins.

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Salaam alaikum.