Living in New York City for my entire life, I felt personally connected to this speech. Former Mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg, in the eyes of many, was not the most sympathetic person during his many years in office. This is why his speech supporting the proposed mosque near ground zero, recalling the first responders who lost their lives in the September 11, 2001, attacks, shocked so many people. Bloomberg gave his speech on Governors Island, one of the first places early settlers stepped foot in New Amsterdam, reminding the audience of past struggles for religious tolerance. He started his speech off this way to awaken the dormant moral compasses of all those who oppose the building of the mosque, “…we come here to state as strongly as ever—this is the freest City in the world. That’s what makes New York special and different and strong.” It seems as though Bloomberg’s intent was to immediately remind the audience of the basic rights and principles that come along with being an American, specifically, a New Yorker. “On that day, 3000 people were killed because some murderous fanatics didn’t want us to enjoy the freedom to profess our own faiths, to speak our own minds, to follow our …show more content…
It would be unjust to pick and choose when our rights, specifically Freedom of Religion, can be exercised. Despite the fact that Muslims were responsible for the events of September 11th, limits should not be placed on all other Muslims just because a group of them did a bad thing. Slavery was a bad thing, should all white people today be held accountable for it? The Holocaust was a bad thing, should anyone with Nazi German Ancestry be held responsible? And so, the main point former Mayor Michael Bloomberg intended to make is that the harmful actions of a few should not be justification for the oppression of the