Opinion: Mosque Sparks NYC's Long-Delayed Reaction to 9/11

(Aug. 27) -- Two weeks ago, I would have said that the so-called ground zero mosque controversy had all the markings of a typical August news story.

It appeared in a dog days news cycle, seemingly out of nowhere, only to be ginned up to a point where it could provide a reliable source of indignance for people looking to fill air time and print space. It seemed like a story about New York City that New Yorkers were going to take a pass on, thank you very much. One of those things the city was happy to let the country rage about while it got on with the business of subway cutbacks, and bedbugs, and general August (and economic) malaise.

But then, over the weekend, the mosque appeared to pierce the armor the island often puts up against the interests of the "rest of the country" -- unleashing a long-delayed and potentially dangerous reaction to that fateful day nearly nine years ago.

It came in the form of a number of protests around ground zero itself. The larger one was a demonstration against the mosque (the smaller one was for the mosque, or really, against its opposition). Astounding video from the larger protest quickly made its way online. Footage of protesters chanting "No Mosque Here!" at a black man who just happened to be walking through the crowd surfaced, as did accusations of racism (the black man in question turned out to be a union carpenter who worked at ground zero).

And then on Monday night a New York cab driver was allegedly stabbed by Michael Enright, a young white passenger, after Enright confirmed the driver was Muslim (or possibly yelled "This is the checkpoint motherf---er. I have to f--- you up this time"). And just like that, New York City appears to have landed squarely in the fury after staying far far away from it.

What is going on?

More than a few pundits these past two weeks have recalled President George W. Bush's call for tolerance following the 9/11 attacks. But I also remember feeling at the time that the message wasn't needed in New York as it might have been in other places. New York in the weeks and months following 9/11 was a city full of shell-shocked residents learning to live with day-to-day fear. A 45-minute delay on the L-train was panic-inducing. Lights off at the Empire State building too early was enough to start rumors of bomb threats. A power plant explosion on the East Side of Manhattan in the summer of 2002 that shut power down on the downtown east side was enough to send people scrambling to the phone to find out if we were under attack again.

Adam Gopnik wrote a piece for the New Yorker in June of 2002 that said a drawing of New York City at that moment would show "8 million people, each person standing on a pole above an abyss of anxiety -- not looking down, never looking down, looking only from side to side, warily."

My point is this: In the aftermath of 9/11 in New York City, there was no emotional room for the sort of furor we have seen this mosque generate. None.

So maybe all this current fury is really just a long-delayed, long-pent-up angry reaction to what happened. Because what happened was awful. And unfair. And in the nine years since, the city never once stomped its foot and complained about that unfairness or awfulness. And maybe we should have, because right now this ground zero mosque insanity is on the verge of becoming very scary and out of hand.

One of my clearest memories of the fall of 2001 is standing on the corner of Ninth and Broadway late at night trying to flag a cab, most of which came bearing some sort of newly acquired American flag in their window. Shortly after 9/11, Middle Eastern and Indian cabbies had begun displaying these flags ostensibly to prove their patriotism, but mostly to show they were safe. And I recall always feeling bad they felt they had to do this since it was clearly so unnecessary.

I was reminded of this for the first time in years the other morning after I heard about the cabbie attack and wondered if, nine years after the fact, they would suddenly feel the need to do it again, and if things keep going the way they are, whether it would be enough this time.