Pretty good post IMO:

Stuck on Stupid about Ground Zero

That was my experience, and each New Yorker has his or her own story. I won’t even go into how I had to return to work the next Tuesday, computers working on generators as our only lights, trying hard to churn out urgent legal work in the midst of a pungent, choking haze of burning plastic, metal and bodies. We all got through it. Well, some of the secretaries in the firm decided to never come back. To take a break, I’d walk the six blocks from my office to Ground Zero and gaze upon the remains of the twin towers, reaching upward like a skeletal hand. Sure, I hated the stark architecture of the twin towers and wished they hadn’t been built - but I didn’t want them to be taken down this way, and now the remains are deeply beloved.

With all that past still very much present within me, I have no problem welcoming a mosque to lower Manhattan, just as I welcome any other place of worship to service and give comfort to the people who live and work in the area. Those of you on the outside who have long disdained New York, who are you to suddenly dictate what should be built in our neighborhood? And those family members of 9/11 victims opposed to the mosque, I’m sorry for your loss, but don’t lecture me about loved ones dying. I’ve lost both parents and several other loved ones, but I’m not going to claim the location of their death as a personal cemetery. All New Yorkers suffered a huge loss that day, when the government failed to protect us and we as Americans finally learned what it means to be under attack. No New Yorker or American will ever be the same.

We are building a memorial for those who died and we will always honor the incredible sacrifice of the first responders and the ordinary people who became heroes because they died simply for going to their jobs. But those few who would appropriate the whole area out of a misguided sense of self-righteousness or to advance narrow political objectives are wrong.

As you can see, New York, and especially lower Manhattan, is moving forward, thriving in our country’s freedom and the comfort of knowing that our country’s ideals of equality and justice govern. There’s much to do. If a mosque can attract capable and productive residents, go ahead and build it! All who are smart, talented, skilled and forward-looking, you are most welcome. We do not discriminate based on religion, but rather on skills, intelligence and a broad worldview. Those who are stuck on stupid, who have, in effect, let the terrorists win by forcing us to abandon our core constitutional values, please get out of the way. We’re too busy for this nonsense.