Notes from September 11
By Tuan Nguyen
The woman looked more and more distraught as the E train approached the World Trade Center station. She had left her seat a couple of stations back and stood forlornly against the door, her eyes hidden by the dark shades. She shook her head, an almost imperceptible sigh escaped her lips. She rushed for the exit when the train stopped.
Sorrows and remembrance is not the only theme underlining this year’s 9/11 anniversary. The commemoration is overshadowed by fiery disputes over the Mosque near Ground Zero and the plan to burn Quran books by an unknown pastor from Florida – the pastor has actually been propelled to fame worldwide thanks to the media. The New York Times reports that Terry Jones, who has around 50 followers, has agreed to 150 interviews just in July and August. Chris Cuomo from ABC News criticized the media “reckless” on his Twitter for adding fuel to the fire.
Ellis Henican from the AM New York bashed the event “an insincere publicity circus” and questioned its necessity as Donald Trump jumped in with a half-hearted offer to buy the property. AP quotes Wolodymyr Starosolsky, the lawyer for the investor in the real estate partnership of the site, calling Trump’s offer “”a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.”
On Op-Ed page of the New York Times Wednesay, Columnist Gail Collins wrote about the “5 percent doctrine.” Says Ms Collins, “there about 5 percent of our population is and always will be totally crazy.” Her advice is “There is nothing you can do about the crazy 5 percent except ask the police to keep an eye on them during large public events, where they sometimes appear carrying machine guns just to make a political point about the Second Amendment.”