Outside the Beltway

One 9/11 Victim Speaks

Steven L. Taylor · Thursday, August 19, 2010 · 1 comment

Ted Olson lost his wife Barbara in the airplane that struck the Pentagon.

This week he said, in regards to the park51/Cordoba House project:

"Well, it may not make me popular with some people, but I think probably the President was right about this," Olson said. "I do believe that people of all religions have a right to build edifices, or structures, or places of religious worship or study, where the community allows them to do it under zoning laws and that sort of thing . . . we don’t want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith."

I am not big fan of the notion that policy and actions ought to be driven by “9/11 families” but it just struck me as a noteworthy statement, given that so many seem to give special moral authority to direct victims of 9/11.

Of course, I suspect someone will assert that because Olson’s wife died in DC and not NYC that that discounts the validity of the example.

Video at the link above.