Nine years ago, we were told that "We are all New Yorkers," in response to the attack on the World Trade Center. That being the case, how can Mayor Michael Bloomberg tell me that the ground zero mosque is none of my business? In the same manner that Pearl Harbor belongs to all Americans, the site of the World Trade Center attacks is a national memorial site.
Given the fact that landing gear from one of the terrorists' airliners struck the building on the site proposed for the ground zero mosque, there can be no debate that the site of the proposed mosque falls within the definition of ground zero.
I propose that President Barack Obama take the same powers used by President Bill Clinton to lock up the Grand Staircase and declare ground zero a national monument. Then the federal government can take control of a good chunk of Manhattan (far less than 1 percent of the footprint of Grand Staircase) and control what happens within its boundaries. Since the federal government is prohibited by the First Amendment from establishing a religion, it would have to prohibit the construction of any religious building within the monument's boundaries.
Loren Minert
Salt Lake City