One & All,
The awful memories of 9/11 evokes some very strong personal feelings over the lives lost that day in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, as well as those in Iraq and Afghanistan since that time. Many of those individuals I personally knew.
I will never forget the sight of the second plane slamming into the South Tower or watching the collapse of both buildings. We were at war from that moment on, and will remain at war until the ‘extremists’ are dead.
The flag that draped my father's casket (a sacred symbol of his service aboard the BILLFISH in WWII) has been flown on September 11th ever since the attacks took place. I’m confident that he would approve of this display of his flag.
What really upsets me, as stated in previous posts, is the fact that many in the U.S. do not realize that we have been in a state of war since that day in 2001 (and before), and will continue to be until the nefarious goals of those who'd do the citizens of our nation harm are either changed through diplomatic means (good luck) or by eliminating them I prefer the latter as there's no such thing as a 'Moderate' in regards to terrorists or those that would support them.
In regards to ‘tolerance’ towards Islamic building plans in NYC, when Catholic, Protestant, Synagogues, and other religious edifices are allowed to be built within the confines of Mecca, that’s when I’d say it’s acceptable for a mosque to be built within two blocks of ‘Ground Zero.’