Park51 and the Smoker

After reading all of the controversy behind Park51 I have related this whole situation to that of a smoker. Picture a family in a park having a wonderful day and eating lunch under the sun. A man walks up nearby, sits down and lights up a cigarette down wind from the family...not knowing that the smoke is blowing in their faces. The family asks the gentleman if he can put out his cigarette and the gentleman says politely, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know my smoke was blowing your direction" and the man gets up and moves to a different location because he wants to continue smoking.

I compare this situation to the same situation we're facing at Park51. Manhattan is the park, ground zero is the family eating lunch and the backers to the construction of Park51 are the smokers. The only difference in this scenario is that when the smoker sits down, lights his cigarette and is asked to leave he tells the family he has the right to sit there and there is nothing the family can do about it. Personally, have you ever heard that from someone if you asked them that their smoking bothered you? Probably not.

I'm not concerned of whether it's a right...I'm concerned about the general politeness of human kind within the society of the United States. Our rights and freedoms separate us from the "bad guys", and so does our general politeness and concern for others within our community.

If this kind of thing is happening around the country in regards to building mosques or other Muslim structures I would tend to not agree with this. This incident was centrally focused on New York City and that's where the concern should lie. Additionally, we, as American civilians, should respect each other. One event already occurred and cannot be changed, but the other event can and should be changed. Please, be the polite smoker.