Another anniversary, another threat

Whenever I see a headline similar to this one (left), all kinds of questions and an increasing amount of cynicism come to mind.

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, potential threats of terrorism have been a part of our lives, particularly on key days -- Christmas, anniversary dates, big event days, etc. Yet, these stories about possible attacks are almost always vague, which makes me wonder why the information is released by the government in the first place.

What are we in the public supposed to do to remain on guard against a "specific" threat that we know nothing about? At least this time two cities, Washington and New York, are named as the apparent targets, but that still doesn't give me much to go on.

Let's face it, most Americans are oblivious to what is going on in their own neighborhoods these days. Expecting people to look for vague clues of possible attacks just isn't realistic, particularly when the government and the media have cried wolf every other month over the last decade.

Frankly, if we want to remain relatively safe and healthy, most of us would be better served to pay more attention to our driving and what we eat than to worry about another 9/11-style attack on U.S. soil. There are people in government charged with keeping us safe. They need to do their jobs and we all need to control what we can to make ourselves and our communities safer -- not from global terrorism -- but from distracted drivers, random crime and environmental dangers. We need to pay more attention to our kids and less attention to reports about things we as private citizens can't do much about. We need to be more observant about the stuff we have some power to influence by electing competent, intelligent people who will work for us, not against us.

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I hope that our government officials are doing their jobs to prevent any attacks this weekend or in the future. While I refuse to hide inside my house because of vague warnings, I do recognize that the job of keeping America safe from lunatics isn't an easy one.

No mosque near Ground Zero

There are certain issues in life where using intellect alone isn't enough to make a proper determination. I believe the debate over the building of a mosque at Ground Zero in New York is one of those issues.

My gut more than my mind or politics tells me that this is not the time to build a towering mosque just a couple hundred yards away from where the World Trade Center went down in a radical Islamic attack on America.

Sure, our country allows many freedoms. But it also has many commonsense restrictions. You can't build a strip joint or a casino in a residential neighborhood. Zoning laws prohibit it. You can't dig up historic cemeteries to build a 7-Eleven or place a YMCA in the middle of a Civil War battlefield. There are certain things that just aren't appropriate to people who would be prone to feel the most pain.

And so it is with a mosque in lower Manhattan.

Religious freedom doesn't mean rubbing salt into wounds (whether the salt is perceived or real) -- wounds that aren't healed, as a hole in the ground still has not been filled 10 years after the 9/11 attacks. New York is a big place. This mosque can be built elsewhere. It shouldn't be constructed before new towers and memorials are built at Ground Zero. It's just one of those things that doesn't feel right, despite logical arguments made by the mayor and others in support of the mosque. Read more.

This isn't just any old mosque. It's a proposed Islamic center -- an enormous, glowing facility that doesn't blend into the area but instead dominates it.

No matter how you cut it or how politically correct one wants to sound, a bastardized version of Islam is at the core of our fight against terrorism. I say that hesitantly, not wanting to sound like a commentator for Fox News. This is a hot-button reality in a post-9/11 world. We're at war in two mostly Islamic nations, looking for terrorists with jihad on their minds. I don't agree with the wars because I believe there is a better, more cost-efficient way to fight terrorism than militarily occupying countries. Regardless, the fact remains that we're still at war with Islamic extremists.

Eliminating terrorism doesn't mean we're against Muslims or that they don't have the right to worship here. It simply indicates that there is, at the very least, a strong emotional connection between the hateful fringes of that religion and some of the problems we are facing as a country. Some of those extreme fundamentalists will undoubtedly worship at the Ground Zero mosque. Government officials charged with determining the fate of the facility need to keep that in mind. If they don't, things could get uglier. It's not a good idea to congregate and/or provoke the more unstable people on either side of this issue (Muslims and non-Muslims) -- not when there are reasonable alternatives. The city has a responsibility to safeguard its citizens, whether they are Muslim, Jewish, Christian or of no faith. Building this mosque near Ground Zero is taking an unnecessary risk and jeopardizing everyone from worshipers to passersby.

A lot of people died in the attacks of 2001. Most of the deaths came at Ground Zero. We're still paying an economic price for those acts of terrorism. Many rescue workers are suffering from illnesses that were caused by breathing the dust of the burning towers. The point is, 9/11 still remains in the hearts and minds of many people, particularly New Yorkers.

There is a large, elaborate mosque a few miles from where I live. It is set off from the road and obscured by trees. It's accessible and right off a main road near Reston, Va., but not easy to see as you drive by. It appears to have been designed with privacy in mind. It is not a welcoming place to outsiders, as security cameras and locked iron gates surround it. There are also many store-front mosques in the area that are quite visible. Needless to say, Northern Virginia has a large Muslim population. However, I am unaware of any new towering mosques in the shadow of the Pentagon. Commonsense seems to have prevailed here.

The proposal for a mosque at Ground Zero has instigated a controversy that didn't need to be stirred. Frankly, if I was a sincere follower of that religion, I wouldn't want the attention that this debate has brought. Build the mosque elsewhere and let the people of lower Manhattan remember those who died on 9/11 in the manner and environment in which they choose.

Are Americans letting their guard down again?

I was at home, in small temporary apartment in Reston, Va., getting ready to start another work day. The TV was on. At first, the reports of a single plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York were sketchy. It seemed like it was a small plane involved in accident. Bad but not horrible. I kept an eye on the news reports because that was part of my job. As a journalist, I had to be aware of what was going on in the world because it would impact how my day and night would unfold at USA TODAY. It wasn't long before I was on the phone with folks in the newsroom.

Of course, Sept. 11, 2001 involved something much worse than a small plane colliding into a skyscraper. The Twin Towers were struck by two commercial airliners that were taken over by terrorists. The building that I worked in just outside of Washington D.C. was only a couple miles away from the next terrorist target, the Pentagon. The former USA TODAY building is the tallest structure in the area and some people who were at work early that day saw the plane flying low, right outside the windows, along the Potomac River. Even though Reagan National Airport is also just up the road, the jet seemed too low. Moments later, American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

It was hard getting to work that afternoon. All roads in Arlington were closed. But with my press badge, I managed to convince police to let me through. The smell of smoke was in the air. I could only imagine what the scene was like in New York. When I entered my office building, the newsroom was humming. Not only was this going to be a journalistic challenge, but it was also somewhat personal. The low-flying jet, which some people estimated to be only a couple hundred yards from our office building when it erratically flew by, hit the defense department mega structure that many of my coworkers drove by every single day and was the site of where some of our friends and neighbors worked. The Pentagon is massive and employs thousands of people from D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Yet, things could have been worse. A fourth plane that was heading to Washington was heroically taken over by passengers and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania before the terrorists could guide it to their intended target.

By now, we all know the story. The tragic day has been well documented. The personal stories and official investigations have been told. Memorials have been erected in Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. The Pentagon has been fully restored. The southern edge of Manhattan is still scarred but maybe that's not an entirely bad thing. Sometimes we need raw reminders.

I was working in New York City during the first terrorist attempt to bring down the Twin Towers. I was at The Associated Press when car bombs went off in 1993. There was a lot of damage in the underground garage but no threat of the building collapsing. That attack should have been a wake-up call.

As a teenager growing up in Rockland County, N.Y., I recall seeing the tops of the newly built Twin Towers from a vantage point near my house up on a hill on Route 301. From 30 miles away, nothing else in the city was visible other than the towers.

I also recall taking my daughter to the towers when she was a young girl. We stood at the base and looked up. It was an intimidating site for anyone, let alone a child who hadn't previously seen any building taller than several stories. I asked her if she wanted to take the elevator to the top. But she was pretty determined to simply enjoy the view from ground level. As someone who doesn't like heights, I must admit I was somewhat relieved.

While we argue about health-care reform and worry about unemployment, we also need to pause on days like today and quietly remember what happened in 2001. We also need to act, be aware of our surroundings, report suspicious activity whether it's at the airport or in our own neighborhoods. It never ceases to amaze me how unaware we are of things that are often in our immediate view. I remember a time, growing up in New York, when people called the police for just about anything. Now, at least where I live, someone in robes with "death-to-America" signs could be openly constructing a bomb in the middle of the parking lot at Chuck E. Cheese's, and no one would say boo.

It's cloudy here today, very unlike the sparkling September 11th day eight years ago. I can't help feeling that there is something in the air that indicates we are far from safe. 9/11 was a wake-up call, but Americans tend to get lulled back into a false sense of security rather quickly. We don't want to believe that another 9/11 type of event could disrupt us from going to the mall or hamper our cellphone service...God forbid.