Tina Trimble Belliston The anniversary of 9/11 is always a very emotional time for me, as it is for the entire country. Nine years ago today, the most horrific terror attack in the history of our country took place. It plunged an unsuspecting city into panic and set the entire nation reeling from shock. We were absolutely paralyzed that day, and I, like so many of my fellow Americans, still weep at its remembrance. So many of us lost family, friends, and loved ones – as did people from more than 70 countries around the world. What the hell happened? The impact of 9/11 wasn’t just felt here at home. The aftershocks were felt around the globe. Most of us can remember exactly where we were that day, what we were doing, and what we were feeling with amazing clarity. So much is now happening in our nation that would have seemed inconceivable just nine years ago, and I think I’m safe in saying that much of it has our collective heads spinning. I do not believe for one fleeting second that, on September 12, 2001, there would have even been a shred of discussion about whether a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero would be “appropriate”. It was a time in our nation when we weren’t Republicans and Democrats, or blacks and whites and Hispanics and Asians, or this religion or that one. Instead, we were Americans. We wept together, we prayed together. We felt fear, horror and shock together. No partisan lines, no racial divides. Just one nation united by tragedy. It is my firm belief that the answer from that American collective to such a question, had it been asked then, would not have been just a no, but a loud and resounding “Hell no!” So what happened in the span of nine years to change that?  Political correctness. Now obviously, lest I be accused of ineptitude by the small minds of those who like to feign intellectualism by slapping together a string of musty, multi-syllabic words interspersed with a peppering of insults – or, in other words, those who would twist my words to imply that I naively believe political correctness only arrived on the scene recently – political correctness is nothing new. (Wow. Nobody can construct a run-on sentence quite like I can. Do you need to take a breath after that one? I do. But I digress.) While it certainly isn’t anything new, it seems to me that political correctness has gone absolutely feral in our society these days. Rearing its ugly head and snaking its way into our minds, it is running amok and striking unnecessary fear into the hearts of the American people, paralyzing so many in the face of what would are deemed “sensitive” issues. In our current society, “sensitive” seems to have become code-word for the fact that if you disagree on said “sensitive” issues you’re going to be labeled racist/bigot/islamophobe/insert-your-own-label-here. Political correctness has many people tip-toeing around the subject of the Ground Zero mosque, many so immersed in fear of offending someone by speaking out that they’ll instead squelch their own feelings, forgetting what they felt on 9/11 – what the overwhelming majority of us felt on 9/11 – the lives lost and the panic struck, in order to spare someone else’s feelings. But here’s a newsflash – having an opinion on this subject does not make you a radical/racist/islamophobe/wingnut/insert-your-own-label-here. For those who spout off that Americans are “overreacting” in regard to this issue, here’s a thought. Tolerance, you cry?  Compassion? Sensitivity?  Freedom of speech?  Well, a little turn of phrase comes to mind: It’s a two-way street. Yeah. That applies here. Demanding that a person tolerate something they find hurtful and offensive does nothing more than facilitate intolerance. Why does it seem that, in regard to this issue, tolerance, sensitivity and freedom of speech are, instead of a two-way street, a one-way street?  Hypocrites. Where does your demand for tolerance and compassion end and mine begin? l No regard is being given to those who will feel the sting from this project the most.  Instead, it seems all the regard is given to those who will stubbornly move forward with the mosque regardless of what message it sends in the minds of the American people. In fact, did you know that you’re a radical? Well, to be fair, 7 out of 10 of you currently reading this would be considered radical, based on recent polls. Don’t want to paint with too broad a brush, you know. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf has implied that 70 percent of Americans are radicals with respect to the Ground Zero mosque project. In his own words, “If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse.” Yesiree, Bob: You’re a radical, I’m a radical, she’s a radical, he’s a radical too! Kind of has a ring to it, don’t you think? So, if you oppose the mosque at Ground Zero based on the premise that you feel it’s insensitive, you’re a radical. But it apparently is not radical for the Cordoba Initiative to display insensitivity by forging ahead with a plan that flies in the face of the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Don’t you just love those pesky little double standards? They seem to rear their smarmy little heads so very often these days. Let’s be honest here. If this issue truly had anything to do with sensitivity, tolerance, compassion, understanding, seeds of peace and all those other feel-good terms people like to toss around, then the Cordoba Initiative would step away from this plan and relocate their project. Instead, apparently we are to be more concerned with the notion, in Rauf’s own words, that “the headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack,” than we are with the will of the American people. Where is the sensitivity on the part of Islam that is so frequently demanded of us as a nation? Tolerance? Compassion? Understanding? Yeah, there’s that pesky little turn of phrase again: It’s a two-way street. And that other pesky term – double standard. Furthermore, can anyone point me to a time when Islam isn’t claiming that it’s under attack? That it’s been offended? That we aren’t being tolerant enough? Speaking of enough, when is enough finally, well, enough? Flag burnings, Bible desecration, persecution of non-Muslims, and even persecution of Muslims who aren’t apparently Muslim enough, are commonplace in the Middle East. Yet we are to find no intolerance, no hate, no bigotry in those actions? Man, those pesky little terms just keep popping up – double standards, two-way streets, and hypocrisy. And yes, for those pseudo-intellectuals who are frothing at the mouth about now, I do realize that the Middle East is not the United States. D’oh! Hypocrisy and double standards still abound. When they can scream all the way from the Middle East and demand tolerance here for their actions there, we can scream right back from the U.S. and demand the same. What does it say about the state of our world when the pastor of the obscure Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, with a tiny congregation of 50, suggests burning Korans on the anniversary of 9/11 and receives more worldwide media coverage than Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally that drew a crowd of 500,000 did? Further to the point, what does it say about the “religion of peace” when they apparently find burning the U.S. flag, desecrating the Christian Bible and persecution of non-Muslims to be perfectly acceptable, yet the mere mention that a few Korans might be burned on the anniversary of 9/11 is enough to cause Muslim radicals the world over to threaten violence?  That the idea of moving the Ground Zero mosque a few blocks further away is enough to cause them to claim that Islam is under attack? What does it say about the state of our nation that the mere hint of burning a few Korans causes our leaders to speak out about the harm that will be done to our relations with Islam? Why is Bible desecration, flag-burning and persecution of non-Muslims by Muslims perfectly acceptable and not to be taken in to account in regard to the impact they may have Islam’s relations with the West, but speaking out against the mosque at Ground Zero makes 70 percent of Americans radicals? I, for one, am sick to death of the appeasement, the demands of tolerance and sensitivity made by hypocrites who refuse to reciprocate the very things they so indignantly stipulate to us. The same people who would use political correctness to subjugate us, and use the very freedoms so many have fought and died to preserve in order to strangle us. Religion of peace and tolerance?  My lily white arse. The holocaust was 60 years ago, and already there are those who claim it never happened. The attacks of 9/11 happened nine years ago today, and already we are being told that we “overreacted”. How long until 9/11 “never happened”? Never forget, America. Never forget.

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9/11: Nine years turns a resolved, united America into a bunch of politically correct pansy asses