“…the facility will include a swimming pool, a 500 seat performing arts theater and a basketball court.”

Much will have been written about the Mosque at Ground Zero both for and against. And yet little touches upon the planned usage of the Islamic Center.

Along with a prayer hall the facility will include a swimming pool, a 500 seat performing arts theater and a basketball court.

In other words something far removed from a religious chapel where individuals can come and pray and render reverential homage to the events that unfolded on and about that site.

Two blocks from Ground Zero. I happened to have been on the street eight blocks from the first tower that was hit that fateful morning. I clearly remember everyone running to the middle of the street to see what was happening.

There was this enormous gash on the facade of the north tower, with smoke pouring out and people on the street hysterically screaming that a plane had crashed into the side of the tower. And then to accentuate the horror, people on the upper and neighboring floors gesturing out of windows 70 or 80 stories up, waving their jackets or whatever they could in desperate urgency to attract attention and help. And those of us on the ground watching the fire broaden already knew it was hopeless.

Around my wife and me were men and women huddled together, dazed, some crying at the horror of it all.

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/a-mosque-perhaps-but-a-sw_b_682611.html?view=print