(In which I portray my love of parentheses and tackle controversy once more.)

So RamblingsofaRose and Alyenfrance are doing this little project where you blog everday for a month. Seeing as I'm leaving for college in a week, I'm assuming this will be a "big change" that will be good to "document" for "the future" and all that stuff. So I've decided to do it as well! (Let's hope I don't need to make pictures like Hayley G Hoover (I love following the 5AG BEDAs!)) okay that was parenthetical suicide, no more of that.
I recently gave my email to the Amherst Student (the school newspaper) to maybe be a photographer/writer. They sent as an optional assignment where we could write about a certain topic. Seeing as I have never written a newspaper article (but I did get an editorial published once XD) I decided I'd just do it on my blog! I will be tackling that subject that you MUST have heard about, that people just can't shut up about, that is annoying me to DEATH...the "mosque at ground zero" debate.

When I first heard about these plans my thoughts were mixed. I felt that there really shouldn't be anything near Ground Zero...but then I looked into it and discovered that the building isn't even a mosque, it's a community center with one floor reserved for Muslim prayer. It's meant to cross bridges, to unite people of different faiths as a sort of YMCA. Here's a quote from the Cordoba Initiative website:
"The community center will be a platform to amplify the voices of the overwhelming majority of Muslims whose love for America and commitment to peace gets drowned out by the actions of a few extremists. ....As Muslim New Yorkers and Americans we want to help and be part of rebuilding our neighborhood in lower Manhattan. It is important for all of us to show the world that Americans will not be frightened or deterred by the extremist forces of hatred."

Essentially, The Cordoba Initiative is meant to help improve relations between the Islamic world and the western world, something that I believe really needs to be done.

"This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."-Donna O'Connor, whose daughter died on 9/11

My point here is that we must remember the bigger picture of America, the whole "Puritans came here to have religious freedom" thing. I don't know if these people have heard of "Freedom of Religion but it's kinda one of our founding principles.
Anyways that's just my two cents.