Why fail again?---From Pearl Harbor, an Answer to 'Hallowed Ground' Crowd

[kpete]

From Pearl Harbor, an Answer to 'Hallowed Ground' Crowd

by David Benjamin
...................

Like many Japanese, Kiyoko has had a number of faiths in her life, including, recently, Christianity. But that day, at Pearl Harbor, she would have welcomed a particular, familiar sort of refuge for her feelings.

Throughout Japan, in the heart of the city and deep in the countryside, there are small, unobtrusive Shinto shrines, some barely larger than a FotoMat booth. Recalling Kiyoko’s unconsoled grief for the long-lost sailors of the USS Arizona, it strikes me that one of those little shrines — perhaps just outside the visitor center — belongs there at Pearl Harbor. I can’t imagine that any American, even Gingrich or Krauthammer, would object to this shrine once they saw, kneeling there, a tiny old Japanese lady crying quietly and praying not only for the souls of the young men lost on that day of infamy, but also for her own nation’s atonement. A mother’s tears, no matter her religion, violate no one’s “hallowed ground.”

The absence of that little shrine at Pearl Harbor is not consecration by omission. It’s simply a deficit of grace, a failure to heal. Why fail again?

Why not, instead, offer Muslims a place — small, familiar and holy — right at New York’s Ground Zero (not two blocks away in a derelict Burlington Coat Factory), where they might seek solace for the feelings that rise from the great crime committed in the name of their faith? Like Kiyoko at Pearl Harbor, they wouldn’t come to gloat or wave flags. Like everyone else, they would be there to pray, to regret, to atone, to share in mourning the ruin of so many unfinished lives.

more:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/27-3

[dkf]

1. And then we can put a Christian Church at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

[pampango]

4. My mistake. n/t

[Land Shark]

2. Beautiful. Thanks for posting. k&r

[G_j]

3. K&R

[jimlup]

5. The "sacred ground" argument is such bullshit.

There is no such thing as "sacred ground". The anti-mosque movement is raw religious bigotry.

[pintobean]

6. The absence of that little shrine at Pearl Harbor...

Has anyone suggested it before? Has anyone ever demanded it? Perhaps wisdom, respect and decency are the reasons for it's absence.

[dkf]

7. The Japanese did send something as a peace gesture but it is miles away

Disrespect is a huge no-no.

[Land Shark]

9. The analogy would be most direct if Japanese Americans had a memorial at Pearl Harbor

Right after 9/11, the whole world including the muslim world, was with us. If Muslim-Americans, defined most broadly as any Muslim worldwide who felt solidarity with American post-9/11 wished to pray at the WTC site, what's the problem with that? It's the Muslim Americans, both narrowly (American citizens and permament residents) as well as globally who are being targeted with the anti-mosque movement because there's absolutely no ties between the proposed mosque and its supporters and Al Qaeda.

[KamaAina]

8. Japanese do not need a shrine to express their sorrow at Pearl Harbor

they constitute about half the visitors to the Arizxona Memorial.

Also, which nation, exactly, attacked us on 9/11? Last I heard, al-Qaeda's application to the UN was still on hold...