There are reasons nobody is trying to build a community center where you live.

Perhaps I’m treading on already trod ground, but the I have to wonder how much of the controversy over the not exactly Ground Zero, not exactly Mosque is really just another proxy battle of misunderstanding between urban Americans and suburban/rural types. The distance of a few blocks is too far to walk on a 100 degree day during my lunch hour, and I love walking. It is also billions of dollars away. If I really want a morning cup of coffee, I’ll go to the coffee shop next door, not 2 1/2 blocks away. For suburbanites, however, this is only a bit further than the distance between the garage and the mail box, and certainly isn’t worth an unfathomable amount of money.

Again, I have no idea how important this actually is, and I’m sure many other issues(Islamophobia, for instance) play a more central role to the objections, but I hope that this weekend, when Glenn Beck acolytes descend on the city I live in, a few of them decide to wander away from the monuments and into the city itself (although I don’t expect many will). When they do, I hope they comment on the distance they’ve walked, and how many building they’ve passed, the differences in architecture, how many Au Bon Pains they’ve inevitably seen, and realize that distance is relative.

Contact Estes at estes@veritiesandvagaries.com