how about this:

Let's not build the mosque and community center near Ground Zero. Let's also not build a church, synagogue, a temple or any other house of worship in that general area. That way no one is offended, no one feels slighted and we can try to repair the rift that's dividing us.

I've done a bit of an about-face in the last week. A month ago, I was open to the idea of the mosque being built. I wouldn't say I was pro-mosque but I felt that perhaps it could open up dialogue between people and be a force for good.

Over the weekend I watched some You Tube footage of the planes hitting the towers. I'd seen it all before, but this time I couldn't get past the footage of people jumping out of windows to their death. One clip showed a man scaling down the side of the second tower with some rope. How he got his hands on it we will never know. The clip is about a minute long. He climbs valiantly for a few feet before the rope starts shaking. He loses his grip and falls to the ground.

Maybe its because I have a child now and I couldn't bear the idea of dying and leaving him, or of him perishing in some unthinkable way, but I couldn't get past the footage, nine years after the planes struck.

It all became clear to me in a New York minute. If my loved one had been killed in the World Trade Center, there is no way I could accept a mosque being built in the vicinity. It would just be an unfortunate reminder that a murderous faction of Islam exists. However, I also would not want any other religious group to move in on that turf. Their mere presence, however unintended, could suggest they are superior to Islam, or that they represent the majority of people who perished on September 11. There is nothing healing about that.

So let's put an end to all of it and have the community center relocate its proposed location. It's the sensible thing to do, in the wake of an event that makes no sense at all.