Sacrilege at Ground Zero
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 14th, 2010 4:32 am by HL
Sacrilege at Ground Zero
Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post
A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of great nobility and sacrifice (Gettysburg), or by the blood of martyrs and the indescribable suffering of the innocent (Auschwitz).When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there — and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.
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Bob Shrum, The Week
Two incidents this week may foretell the outcome of the midterm elections. First, the President signed a $26 billion bill to save the jobs of teachers, police, and firefighters across the country. Typically, he got the result he wanted, but little of the credit he needs. Both this latest success and his rather sparse comments about it, which were buried inside the newspapers and in the rundown on television news, swiftly faded for a nation now numbed to legislative landmarks and impatient for economic recovery.