BCF - Never Forget!

[alexandraerin]

Folks, this is a little painful for me to write about.

I've never shopped at Burlington Coat Factory. I couldn't say why, exactly... it's not like I wasn't aware of them. It's not like the opportunity wasn't there. There was a great big Burlington Coat Factory right outside of Westroads Mall that I passed by on almost a weekly basis for over a year. I just passed it by. I wasn't intentionally ignoring it or anything... I guess I just always had the idea in the back of my head that I could go into it, some day. I took it for granted that it would always be there.

Folks, that Burlington Coat Factory closed down some years back and today there is a Whole Foods on the site where it stood. I cannot visit that store without feeling a pang in my heart and spending about a hundred dollars on a week's worth of groceries. And so I know exactly where Sarah Palin is coming from when she speaks out against the current plans by a group of private citizens to build a community center on the site of a former Burlington Coat Factory in Manhattan. Sure, this is America and they can do what they want with their private property, but some things are special, some things are sacred, some things are too important to leave up to "rights" and "laws", and the ground of a Burlington Coat Factory is hallowed ground indeed and while I never thought the day would come where I'd be saying this, I am glad to have the voice of Sarah Palin speaking out as a voice of reason on this issue.

...wait, what?

Folks, I have just been informed that Sarah Palin's objection to the community center isn't that it's being built on the site of a Burlington Coat Factory but that she objects to a mosque at Ground Zero of the 9/11 attacks. Evidently there's been some confusion somewhere, because I'm almost positive that the 9/11 attacks didn't happen at a Burlington Coat Factory and the plans I've heard aren't for a mosque. She must be talking about something else entirely, I suppose. I'm going to have to go do some more research on the topic, but in the meantime it looks like I'm going to be a lone voice in the wilderness here on this whole Burlington Coat Factory preservation issue.

Comments

My fellow Americans, please, think of the coats.

[imaginedechoes.livejournal.com]

Very clever. You made me chuckle over an issue that has, until now, only made me rather upset.

A wise and cynical friend of mine once outlined a simple formula for being successful in politics:
1. Divide the population into a large group, and a small group.
2. Convince the large group that the small group is a threat.
3. Tell the large group that you'll protect them from the small group.

At <1% of the population, Muslim Americans must seem a tantalizing political target.

I'd give other examples where this three-step formula to political fortune has been used, but rather than taking the risk of running afoul of Godwin's law, let's just say instead that the Anti-Defamation League's opposition to the community centre is deeply ironic.

[addiejd.livejournal.com]

You know, I read something totally crazy like that the World Trade Center is a TWO whole blocks away from that site. Can you imagine anything more horrific that building a Muslim community center and mosque so close when there are already other mosques in closer proximity? We should be trying to close those down too!

[tzadkiel.livejournal.com]

Stepping aside from the merits of the war in Afghanistan (we're not going to find any for the one in Iraq, but that's a whole separate post) I am deeply pained at the dynamics here ... and a little in awe of the well laid plan.

You can not "win the hearts and minds" if the Afghans or any Muslims no matter how many schools and hospitals we build if we are burning Korans, decrying their religion as one of Satan, and creating a firestorm about the non-mosque mosque. Fighting the community center in this way helps LOSE the war in Afghanistan.

... And then you run on a platform that the current administration has bungled the war.

Now, not to get all "picky" about the use of words, but I think I need to vent about the economics a moment.

Approximately 3000 people died during the attack on the towers and the subsequent fire & collapse. The memorial on the 16 acre site dedicates 232 square feet per person. (almost a whole apartment in that part of Manhattan, I know.)

Now at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park - one of the few places we can actually use the phrase "ground zero" CORRECTLY - the same math comes out to just over 5 square feet. That's pretty much how much space I take up just standing here.

It's a tragedy; I got it. Ground Zero? No, not at all. The site is sacred? Now we're off in left field.