The great thing about weeks like this is, you can feel all the bipartisanship and change springing up.
As of today, everyone across the spectrum who matters - from Harry Reid to Newt Gingrich, from Sarah Palin to Howard Dean, and from ADL head Abraham Foxman to helpful Archbishop Dolan - understands that while of course Muslims have a First Amendment right to build a community center in accord with local regulations, they should do it somewhere else.
I'm staying out of local issues myself, of course. But it's clear that except for a few less sensitive souls - Mayor Bloomberg; our only Muslim lawmaker Keith Ellison; Ted Olson, the gay-friendly Republican lawyer whose wife was killed on 9-11; the owners of the property who funded their community center project; and of course, the Professional Left - everyone is in agreement.
Just think how much easier the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 60s would have been if my parents' generation weren't so picky about where they sat.
No one denies the right of a peaceful Muslim group to build any religious center in accord with the law. It's in the First Amendment.
But if you're not sensitive to your community, you're asking for trouble.
Gay people who want to hijack marriage and give it a new meaning are being insensitive to millions of older Americans who felt marriage was a privilege, not a right - and who don't want their marriages spoiled after the fact.
And gay parents are really being reckless with their kids -- who can't qualify for a parent's Social Security when there's no marriage license. Disregarding children's needs may be legal, but it's a big no-no in my book.
Interracial families in Alabama are kind of asking to be firebombed. After all, when the state law was changed in 2000 to make mixed marriages legal, the only reason the referendum passed was all those African American voters ACORN registered. The white population voted to keep mixed marriages illegal -- contrary to federal law and Supreme Court ruling dating back to 1967. So you don't want to be insensitive to that, even if your marriage is technically legal, if you know what's good for you.
ACORN was bad for America and had to be destroyed -- that was another bipartisan victory from this past year. It's a huge win when you can get 173 Democrats and 172 Republicans to agree on anything!
Sure ACORN was registering more poor and disenfranchised voters and more Democrats than any other organization in history, and were found not guilty of any crime - they still made many of my colleagues uncomfortable. Sure, federal judges ruled that the vote for ACORN's destruction was illegal and unconstitutional. And I know, Congressman Grayson explained what a "Bill of Attainder" is right before the vote. But many of my colleagues kind of like the voters we already have. And isn't bipartisanship more important?
I guess I'm rambling, as I sometimes do on these Ambien fueled AM visits with the Oval Office iPad.
The important thing is, even a brother like Governor David Paterson understands that location isn't everything and wants to help look for a better site. New York is a huge state, and I bet he'll find somewhere terrific in Albany or Schenectady. You've got to be flexible. Who knows? If only Rosa Parks hadn't been so stubborn and insensitive -- insisting on a seat at the front of the bus where she knew people might be traumatized by her presence -- Martin Luther King might be alive today.
I knew you'd understand.