OPINION:
It’s interesting that Michael Bloomberg is so proud of backing a “Muslim center” that would have towered over Ground Zero and instructed us that Sept. 11, 2001, was as much America’s fault as anyone else’s (“’Never prouder’: Bloomberg boasts of backing mosque near 9/11 Ground Zero,” Web, March 2). Bloomberg was primarily responsible for seeing to it that the site was remade so that it — including the six-acre, billion-dollar 9/11 memorial — did not include any acknowledgement of the attacks.
When I fought for the return of the Koenig Sphere, the only intact surviving artifact of the World Trade Center to the site, Mr. Bloomberg spoke against its return. Also, I was told by the then-executive director of the port authority of New York and New Jersey that Mr. Bloomberg’s deputy mayor, Patricia Harris, now CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, wanted no cross placed on top of the rebuilt St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, overlooking the site and visible from the 9/11 memorial.
So while Mr. Bloomberg was proud of defending building a mosque anywhere in New York City, he felt that reminders of 9/11 and symbols of Christianity had no place at or near Ground Zero.
MICHAEL BURKE
Bronx, N.Y.
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