So I went down to the Ground Zero protests on Saturday. Not to take part, but just to observe. I think it’s become far too easy to just sit back on your couch and watch images of people you disagree with, to point at them and say, “See those images of people? I hate those images.” I wanted to go see it for myself; to make these people real. It’s one thing to watch a YouTube video; it’s quite another to get off the subway and find yourself standing next to someone in a t-shirt reading, “JESUS IS THE JUDGE. THEREFORE: HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN. ABORTION IS MURDER. ISLAM IS A LIE.”
Remember the river of slime from Ghostbusters II that made everyone in New York hate each other? The Chambers Street A stop must have been flooded with it. There was barely contained rage welling up from every street corner. I watched a preacher give a red-faced, screaming sermon on the threat of “the great beast Islam”, until he was loudly interrupted by a heavy-set man who demanded to know why abortion was a sin. He in turn was immediately buttonholed by an enormous firefighter — in uniform! — who demanded, “Is it the baby’s fault he was aborted? Is it the baby’s fault?” By now it was a nose-to-nose shouting match: the heavy-set man screamed back at the fireman, “If your wife was raped, you’d be a hypocrite, sir! A hypocrite!” Next to me, a squat, grimacing man shook his head: “See? He’s distracting everyone so they can’t hear the preacher speak. That’s what liberals do.” Never mind that none of this had anything to do with, you know, the mosque — these were just people looking for a fight.
The anti- and pro-mosque protests were held just one block away from each other, each group of protesters cordoned off by barricades. Looking around, though, it was clear that most of the people who came out were just the same old groups who go to every protest, just because they like protesting: the anti-mosque side was dominated by out-of-state church groups in matching hateful t-shirts; the pro-mosque side was mostly old-school lefties like the Socialist Workers Party, plus a healthy dose of 9/11 truthers and anarchists. The SWP even had a gubernatorial candidate there, shaking hands and kissing babies. (Here’s a tip, by the way: No matter how pure your intentions, printing “Socialist Workers Party” on the bottom of all your signs probably isn’t going to win you a lot of hearts and minds at a Tea Party rally.)
I had a policy of accepting anything anyone was handing out. In three hours, I collected:
- Ten pieces of Christian recruitment paraphernalia, including a pamphlet called “Who Is This ‘Jesus’, Anyway?”, a “Gospel Bracelet”, and a CD of “Music for Your Spiritual Journey”.
- Four “Official Response to Attacks on the Muslim Community” flyers, each from a different left-wing political group.
- One copy of “Ten Reasons Why You Should Question 9/11”
- A free copy of the Gospel of John.
- A free copy of the Qu’Ran, along with an open letter from an Imam to Rev. Terry Jones.
- A free CD of a song called “Hey American”, the cover of which encourages you to “Look for the Video on YouTube!”
Mostly, it seemed like everyone present was there to promote something: their religion, their political party, their album, their opinion. There were Muslims present, yes, but most of them were hot dog vendors trying to make a buck selling food to the crowd. I saw the adorable little boy in the photo above in person, and in his own way, even he was selling something: His mom, recognizing an excellent photo opportunity, had stuck an American flag in his hand, and he was perpetually surrounded by cameras, each photographer running off to broadcast his side of the story to Flickr, to the New York Times, to the Muslim world back home.
And that’s fitting, because for all that Ground Zero is “sacred ground”, the World Trade Center was a place devoted to self-aggrandizement. These were buildings full of people trying to make themselves richer, more important, and more successful — and why not? That’s the spirit of America. So here’s my proposal: Forget the Freedom Tower, and forget the Park51 community center; Let’s just keep the protests going indefinitely. A screaming mob of people carrying signs and perpetually handing out flyers, CDs, literature and manifestos, twenty four hours a day, all year long. And every year, on September 11th, we’ll all troop down to lower Manhattan and let them try to convince us to follow their God, believe their conspiracy theory, visit their YouTube video, and buy their hot dogs. I can’t think of a memorial we deserve more.
