Leonard Pitts The Miami Herald

July 21, 2010

Leonard Pitts
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132-1693

RE: “Those words mean exactly what I want them to mean” would be one way to comment on your “Can’t we all just get along” column in today’s Miami Herald asking for volunteers to help build the mosque at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center.

Mr. Pitts,

Who knows but with a bit of luck and Allah’s blessings the damn thing could be dedicated on September 11, 2014? We could have some relatives of some of the people who took the express elevator from the 101st floor to the basement that day hold hands with some of the descendants of some of the peace loving murderers who flew the planes into the buildings. We could have a display of lions and lambs lying down together although History tells us to keep a goodly supply of lambs nearby. We could have the Emerald Society Pipe Band play Kumbaya.

This is one time when the saying that the boobies are running the hatch comes up short. Madness and lunacy are upon us.

Will there be a stoning pit for women taken in adultery? Will cliteroidectomies be performed there or at the soon to be constructed Mt. Sharia Hospital? Would it be “culturally arrogant” of me to ask if Obamacare will cover the above named procedure? After all, it is elective surgery. 5 Muslim countries in Africa still condone slavery. Age appears to have finally caught up with Mandela but isn’t it time for some new blood to challenge the world’s conscience out like he did with Apartheid?

Since the New York City Council has outlawed smoking, salt, teenage obesity, and nuclear war while keeping alternate side of the street parking and rent control don’t you think it could delay the issuance of the final Certificate of Occupancy until the mullahs, both Shia and Sunni, sing Hava Nagilah?

Pop Quiz

How many non-Muslim places of worship are in Mecca?

If it is OK to burn an American flag would it be OK to burn the Koran? Should some passing stranger stumble upon one ablaze would it be OK for him to pee on it solely for the purpose of saving it, there being no other liquid available?
Your too clever by half quasi-snarky comment on Sarah Palin saying “refudiate” rather than “repudiate” calls to mind several other linguistic lapses. I search, vainly, for any comments from you about them.

#1 – If the Mosque is built will Lord Barack the Beneficent send the United States Marine Corpse to guard it?
#2 – Should these Corpsemen be chosen from all 57 or 58 states? Have any new states been added? If so don’t you think it’s time to redesign the flag?
#3 – Do you think a bookstore in a place called the World Trade Center would have a copy of the elusive Austrian/English dictionary?

You title your column “A Mosque to be built on our principles”. May I ask which principles? Reasoned discourse, scientific inquiry, freedom of speech, representative democracy, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, the presumption of innocence, minority rights, habeas corpus, critical inquiry, the Rule of Law – Stop me when you find some or any to build this mosque on. Send up a flare if you find any Muslim run country where they prevail.

It occurs to me that you could be suffering from PPPTSS – Post Pulitzer Prize Traumatic Stress Syndrome. A number of other winners, Walter Duranty and Janice Cook leap to mind, were pioneers. One of the ways it manifests itself is in an excess of “eclectic indignation”.

It enables you to say, and may I add that you do it straight faced with nary a hint of wit or whimsy, that while deficits under Bush were bad multiplying them by a factor of 4 under Obama makes them divinely inspired.

It is time to hit the “reset button” on this.

When was the last time you heard a college football half time show featuring a nice little tune called “Dixie”?

Ideas have consequences.

So do songs; so do mosques.




Kevin Smith