Scary fanatics like Newt Gingrich turn Ground Zero mosque debate into ugly, stupid spectacle

[pampango]

Source: New York Daily News



There were a thousand or so people there, some supporting the building of a mosque at Park Place and more opposing it, carrying signs about freedom and religion, speaking for God and about America at a place where just about every religion in the world lost someone on Sept. 11, 2001.

Somehow, even as this played out, the shouting back and forth near what they all call sacred ground, you had the sense the caravan is about to move on to something else, to something more relevant in the lives of those who live in all parts of the city.

Like perhaps J-O-B-S.

Even before the demonstrations, so much of this debate had turned stupid, dumb and mean and loud, because all public debate eventually does these days. Somehow we had gone past reasonable conversation about whether the building of this mosque is a practical - and sensitive - matter, and straight to train-wreck TV in Cable America.

This time it wasn't Sarah Palin leading the charge, the same yammering Palin who can dumb things down in ways that should be measured the way we measure fast times in the Olympics. No, this time the gold medal went to Newt Gingrich, the front-runner in an awful lot of polls to be the Republican nominee for President in two years.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/23/2010-08-23_scary_fanatics_like_newt_make_it_an_ugly_debate.html