TO THE EDITOR:
Alex Jackson (“‘Ground Zero’ mosque is not a question of religion,” Aug. 27) raises important factual points about the controversy around the Muslim Center in Lower Manhattan.
But the issue does more than remind us of how important our American values of free speech and the free exercise of spiritual values are. It also presents us with an opportunity to reach out in our University community and the local community to extend the open hand that the President has spoken of.
Where some of us have done so, we receive a welcoming response from our Muslim coworkers and classmates.
We need to try to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, perhaps by recalling our own fresh arrival on campus or the stories our families told about when they arrived in this country — how fearful they were, and how hurtful were the not-so-subtle barbs hurled at them and their children and neighbors. And how cautiously hopeful they — and we — felt from the kind word and outstretched hand of strangers.
Professor Nancy Milio
School of Public Health
