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It will serve as a rallying point for radical Islam even if it is built by moderates. Any action against it once it is built will serve as an excuse for further violence from that small sect of Islam.

Imagine the horror of being raped and then being told the rapist’s family is building a mansion just down the block. You don’t know if the rapist will visit them or not. You try to believe they are truly law-abiding citizens but what if on some level some other member of that same family eventually pursues the same violent path? You can live with them happily abiding some distance away but the thought of them building this house which will be a dominant fixture in your neighborhood on the anniversary of your rape so close to you rips open the wounds you suffered.

You respect their right to live where they wish but out of simple understanding for the pain you have suffered, you want their mansion built elsewhere. It is not a matter of blaming the family for the sins of one member. It is a matter of being reminded by a structure too huge to ignore that the rapist may never be far away and despite your efforts to forgive and not blame the entire family, the wounds are not healed enough to accept their proximity without that dark cold fearful/angry feeling that requires time to see past.

If they want harmony they should build their cultural center farther away, then contribute to the memorial being built at ground zero. Denounce the terrorist actions. Separate themselves from the radicals publicly.

They are asking the American people to trust too soon.

The only difference between “bitch” and “nigger” is that the N word has a racial history. It was originally a simple descriptive term derived from the word “negro” or “black”. It became a derogatory term in its use to indicate black slaves or people considered of similar station. It took on the connotation of one who was lowly, stupid, lazy etc. When used by a person who is not black or of obvious black African heritage it is still considered only in the pejorative sense. When used by a person of obvious black African descent it can be interpreted as pejorative, a brotherly reference or a playfully insulting taunt depending on the context.

Having stated the obvious in detail at this point I wonder what it would take to make “bitch” a word of such hypersensitive status as “nigger”. Obviously “bitch” is more politically correct since it applies to all races equally. I have never really used the N word but I think that from now on “bitch” should be the new “nigger” and strive for the same status.

Problem is, such stark and obvious duplicity stifles any possibility of achieving true and effective resolution to the underlying issues, and instead empowers those who otherwise rightly could claim grievous injury from the use of such language to self-inflict equally grievous destruction that kills by inches the soul of the communities in which they live.

My mother was Japanese, migrating here from pre-war Osaka, Japan. My father was mixed race English, Scottish, German, and Native American Indian.

My grandmother on my father’s side was horribly racist. But then, so were so many in her generation, having lost brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers to very determined and unquestionably cruelly inhumane enemies.

My grandmother on my mother’s side was horribly racist, but then, when generations have been brought up to believe absolutely in their own superiority, it becomes impossible for those generations to recognize their own racist proclivities.

In my lifetime, I have been railed and assailed as a “Jap”, “Slant Eyes”, “Nip”, and (quite misdirectly) “Chink”, among so many other slurs and epithets, yet I thoroughly understand the completely demeaning, disparaging nature of these words and therefore do no depend on a socio-political movement to point out the denigration of their continued use, regardless of any social justification that may be offered.

I do not use such insults as terms of “personal endearment” as I once heard someone claim when laughingly hurling the “N” word at another friend. The common use of these racial slurs do not proliferate my art, my music, nor my literature except within the confines of historical contexts.

In short, there are few cultures that find these dichotomous attitudes toward racial disparagements acceptable, and those cultures that do eventually carry the scars from such transgressions.

As a sidebar, I do not agree with your assessment of Laura Schlessinger, but that could be an offline discussion, better conducted over Scotch and seafood…with an appropriately determined dessert, of course.