Symbolism of "Ground Zero" Depends on Perspective

Grab a map and draw a circle around "ground zero" of the 9-11 attacks. That's the challenge facing all parties in the NYC mosque debate.

The furor over how close is too close to ground zero for a planned Islamic center and mosque has raised a simple question nine years after Sept. 11: Where exactly is ground zero?
The lines marking the site of the 2001 terror attacks change depending on which New Yorker, 9/11 family member and American you talk to. Even those who know it best can't agree on its boundaries. Tourists who come to snap pictures outside of a busy construction site often aren't sure that they're there.
Andrew Slawsky, a 22-year-old college student standing outside the proposed mosque and Islamic center, north of the World Trade Center site, says ground zero is not here.
"This is not sacred ground," Slawsky said. "To me, ground zero is any site that was destroyed or damaged on 9/11 — mostly the hole in the ground."
But Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son was killed at the trade center, says ground zero extends far beyond the fenced-off construction site where cranes, skyscrapers and a Sept. 11 memorial are rising. It goes through a wide swath of lower Manhattan, where debris was littered on rooftops and body parts were found years later, she says.

Here's a map to work from:

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Brant's take?
1. "Ground Zero" ain't just in New York folks. In case you missed it, there was a plane that hit the Pentagon, and another that went down in Pennsylvania. Those impacts are just as important as the ones in NYC. If you're drawing a circle around "ground zero" then it's going to cross more than a few state lines.
2. I get the feeling that more than a few Islamophobes are defining "ground zero" in the most convenient fashion to meet their agendas.
3. It's not like the proposed mosque is going to have a 'Victory of Allah viewing platform' overlooking the site of the twin towers. It's 4 blocks away, facing a different direction, embedded within a mass of other 10-story buildings.
4. Some people just aren't happy without a manufactured 'controversy' to keep them in front of TV cameras. On any end of the political spectrum.


By: Brant