It hardly seems like nine years since America’s “Second Day of Infamy,” Sept. 11, 2001. As I reflect on that fateful day, I am reminded of a song by Darryl Worley. The lyrics poignantly ask what should remain the core of every citizen’s recollection:

“Have you forgotten how it felt that day? To see your homeland under fire, and her people blown away … ”

As the haunting lyric replays in our national memory, we must find our way to make room for a more pointed question:

Have “they” forgotten? Of course, the “they” to whom I refer being the apologists and politicians who chose to manipulate the issue of a mosque too near ground zero in New York City.  

And, all this has been unfolding during the run-up to the memorial observance of the dastardly terrorist attacks.

Perhaps, the only rationalized excuse permitted to the self-centered is, “they” must have forgotten.

“Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell … ”

Or, could it be that some of the “they” have become instruments and pawns in the ongoing assault on America. It should surprise no logical American that adversaries and enemies alike have conscientiously studied our country from its founding in order to understand, probe, and identify those

“What about our freedom, and this piece of ground? We didn’t get to keep ‘em, by backing down …” And, we won’t get to keep our country by wilting under domestic media manipulation by Time magazine and others that opposition to what can be described as a “victory mosque” is caused by American Islamophobia.

And, we won’t get to keep our country by sending mosque promoter Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on a “U.S. taxpayer-funded trip through the Middle East to bolster support for the construction of what one might think of as the Muslim Victory Mosque”.

And, we won’t get to keep our country by permitting construction of 1,056-foot high “middle finger” so close to where 19 Muslim terrorists murdered almost 3,000 Americans during the most deadly attack on the U.S. mainland in history.

“Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Yeah, some went down like heroes, in that Pennsylvania field.
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost and those left to … carry on.”

Regardless of your views on Islam, building a mosque at or near ground zero is deliberately provocative and unacceptable. This is not Islamophobia, its just common sense to “those left to carry on.”

Richard Olivastro is president of Olivastro Communications and founder of Citizens for Change. He can be reached at richolivastro@gmail.com or 1-877-RICH-SPEAKS.