Lubbock Left

I dislike stepping into another right-wing talking point, but it looks like this one is finally on the way out. So, I’m going to speak my peace on it.

Some right-wing leaders have wholly embraced the “war on islam” mindset (Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich come to mind), promoting religious intolerance by opposing the so-called “ground zero mosque.” I say so-called, because like any recent right-wing talking point, it’s mostly wrong on purpose. The proposed structure is 1) not a mosque, and 2) not at ground zero. Cordoba House (now Park51) is a multipurpose community building, inside of which is an interfaith outreach center, inside of which is a mosque (one that Al Qaeda would hate, incidentally). It’s two blocks and around the corner from ground zero, and you can’t see ground zero from the proposed location of 45-47 Park Place or vice versa. (Put it into google streetview if you want to test this — there are at least two big honking buildings in the way.)

Well, this week the NYC Landmark Commission unanimously cleared the way for the Cordoba House to be built by declaring that the current building is not, in fact, a landmark. Additionally, Mayor Bloomberg (not one of my favorite mayors to be sure) gave an impassioned speech today that makes it clear that the city of New York stands behind our religious freedom and property rights in this country. I’ve always said that we as a nation could learn a lot from how our biggest and best cities manage to get by and get along. (Certainly the City of Lubbock is at the stage in its life where we will begin to have real metro area issues and can no longer act like a small town writ large. Religious tolerance will definitely be required of us in our city’s near future.)

So, the loud-minority right-wing talking point of the “ground zero mosque” is over. They’ve tweeted; they’ve facebooked. They’ve raged on talk radio and on FOX and on the Drudgernet. A few made provocative signs and made loud noises at meetings. And it’s all been for naught. This particular right-wing exercise in un-American, unconstitutional, intolerant rhetoric has run its course. Aside from a slight hangover of impotent rage, our national consciousness can recover… until the next hateful distraction from the right comes up.