Every morning, there's an old Russian man who sings at the train station I get on the train. His singing isn't good, but what's annoying is that it's loud and it's the first thing you hear when you get onto the platform. In the past month or so, I have only seen one person give him money.

Two weeks ago, another man, who is around his late 20's, got onto the train while I was on my way to work. He began singing. I had my headphones on, so I just ignored him. However, at one point, he was screaming something so I turned off my music to hear what was going on. He was asking for money because no one gave him any. Then he starts going off about how "a bunch of Mexicans who don't even sing in English, make over a hundred dollars a day, while he is singing songs that praise the Lord and he can't even make a dollar." He then explains that he's broke and can't find a job. He needs the money to eat and is resorting to "working for this money instead of robbing people or dealing drugs." He then pulls the race card and says everyone is racist. He's black, that's why no one wants to help him.

First of all, no one wants to be bothered in the morning. People sleep and read in the morning for a reason. We just want to start out day, conflict free. No one wants to hear music or loud singing at this time. Afternoons are better so try targeting that audience. Second of all, how do you expect people to want to help you after you just called them racist? If you want people to help you, you're supposed to be nice about it, not try to guilt them.

I'm always annoyed by people who keep my morning commute from being peaceful. Sometimes, people talk on the phone and it's so loud. I noticed other commuters feel the same way about noise. People are less likely to help/donate in the mornings.

Do you get annoyed by loud noise like people performing or singing in the morning? Are you less likely to help?

Dear Chairman of the MTA:

I'm very sick and tired of the crappy service the MTA provides. You continue to cut service and jobs, while raising the fare. I'm not sure why you even have public hearings. No matter how many people show up to complain about the fare hikes, you go ahead and raise them anyway. Why sit around for hours hearing words you're going to ignore?

For the second night in a row, I was asked to get off the train. Due to some sick or injured passenger, ALL service from DeKalb Ave to Stillwell Ave was cut. Who's intelligent decision was this? You made thousands of rush hour commuters get off the train, transfer to the Manhattan bound train to Atlantic Ave and then take the D or N to Stillwell so they can transfer to the B or Q again towards Manhattan for their stop? That's at least an extra hour of commuting. The huge influx of passengers going into other trains and buses, caused a great inconvenience to passengers that normally take those trains and buses, further affecting thousands more.

You know what happens when companies have poor leadership? They fire them. I have had family that has worked for the MTA and they told me that people there are dumb and lazy. I believe them. MTA is notorious for NOT hiring the cream of the crop simply because they don't want to pay more money. But look at the situation we have now-- $800 million deficit that you're trying to cover because of poor planning and mismanagement of funds. On top of all the government funds (that come from our taxes), you raise fares.

We heard about layoffs, but what about salaries of senior management? It's just another case of the MTA bullying the little people. You should be ashamed of yourself, but we all know you're not. You can still go on TV and tell everyone with a smile on your face that fares must be raised. What's so funny? I'm sure you can sleep well at night because you find this whole thing humorous!

My advice is to fire all those people who caused this. They need to held accountable for such poor planning. Hire new people who have proven themselves able to manage the money and funds better. Train fares were $1 when I was a kid. Are you telling me that trains are 150% better now to justify the increase? I'm not so sure.

Raymond Lee
Extremely unsatisfied commuter

Nothing to blog about this morning, so I'm gonna do what I always do--play the question game. Ask any question you want--whether it's something about me or if you want my opinion on something.

I will almost answer any question. The ones I won't are the ones that contain confidential information like my SS#, mother's maiden name and my current address. I will also not answer questions that involve sharing information about other people.

Please keep it to two questions. "Why?" is considered a question so choose carefully! I'll answer more than two if they interesting enough, so try your luck!

And if no one wants to ask anything, less work for me!

Tune back later today to see if I answered your question!

 

EDIT:  Q & A

The weather has been really nasty of late.  I don't hate rain, but this is definitely a bit excessive.  Weather is really weird here.  Last year, it rained throughout the summer, but not much during the Fall.  This year, the summer was really dry and hot, but the Fall has been rainy and chilly.  Normally, I LOVE the Fall because of the cool, dry weather, but so far, it has been mostly cool and wet.

 

Teenager again?  I'd probably do something along the lines of smoke a lot of cigarettes.  I quit when I was 17 and although it has been over 12 years, I still think about smoking all the time.  I guess going back in time would give me the excuse to be stupid and reckless again.  lol.

One million dollar gift certificate for ONE store?  Does buying gold coins from a precious metals brokerage count?  I guess not, but if not, probably Walmart.  I'd buy stuff I'd want for myself.  I can live off the rest of the balance by buying food for the rest of my life.  But assuming that I have to spend it all on one shot, I'd buy stuff that I want like electronics.  But with the remaining balance of around $950k, I'd just buy non-perishable food, medical supplies and other things and have them donated to non-profit organizations where they can use these things to help people.

 

There are 20 E's total.  I consciously type out the first one and then just copy and paste it for all other comments.  I started doing this when I first started blogging in 2002.  Back then, I'd just hold down the 'e' key and if it looked adequate, I'd just hit submit.  Twenty is a pretty sizable amount and ever since maybe 3-4 years ago, I have adopted it as the standard.  Why the e's?  Well, when you read it, it seems like you're holding on the last part of my name.  It's odd, but I thought it was funny and it stuck.

 

How else?  I tell them that I met her online.  I explain that I'm a blogger (most my friends and family know that) and she is/was also a blogger.  It's pretty much the same story I posted on Xanga a few months back.  Most people are really surprised although I'm not sure why.  People meet online all the time.

 

The first time I drank was probably when I was a kid.  I think I might have been around 7-8 years old and my father used to have a lot of friends over to play mahjong.  My dad always had beer (Budweiser) to entertain his friends, even though he wasn't much of a beer drinker himself.  I was curious to see what they were drinking and asked for some.  Everyone laughed and gave me a sip.  I thought it was absolutely the most disgusting thing I have ever consumed my entire life!

My first time drunk and first time hungover were too different times.  First time drunk was probably when a guy bet me $300 to see who can do more shots of tequila.  I won, but I blacked out and collapsed, having my face hit the table.  I needed to be carried out, but no one dialed 911. Good thing I didn't have alcohol poisoning!  As for first time hungover, it was probably during my early clubbing experiences.  I drank and danced a lot back then and would always wake up feeling like crap.

 

That's a good question.  I would say, a 7.  I'm overall pretty happy.  I like my job, I'm happily married and I don't really have much to worry about.  I would like to make/have more money, but who doesn't?  There's always room to grow in terms of satisfaction/happiness.

 

I try to travel, but like most people, I either have time and no money or money and no time.  I really haven't been to that many places.  In Asia, I lived in Hong Kong for a little more than half a year and traveled to a couple of cities (Macau, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou) of China on my own for three weeks.  In Europe, I've only been to England.  I got to see 6 cities in 8-9 days.  I went alone, but I have some friends there so it was fun.

I love going to California, both to LA and the Bay Area.  I have a lot of friends there, so I try to go about once a year.  For other trips, I mostly roadtrip--I'm not a huge fan of driving, but roadtrips are the exception.

I usually have a great time on my trips, especially to California because of my friends there.  But aside from that, Puerto Rico would be my favorite trip.  One particular aspect was hiking through a rain forest to this guide's house and then eating his wife's homecooked vegetarian meal, made from food from their organic crops.  Then in order to get back to our car, we had to zipline through the forest and then repel off a 100+ ft cliff.  It was quite an adventure.  On this same trip to PR, I got to ride ATVs through another rain forest, kayak through a lake at night that had Bioluminescence.  The water would glow when you touch it.  Lastly, I also got to ride a horse for the first time.  It will also be my last because I felt really bad for the horses.  Great experience overall.

 

These questions are totally different so I'll just answer them separately.

I do believe in extraterrestrials and life on other planets.  It would be arrogant to believe that Earth is the only planet in the universe to be able to contain life.  Life as we know it (LAWKI) might be different of course, but any planet that has water would either once upon a time contain life or will eventually contain life.  I believe they just located a planet that is very similar to the Earth and they believe that if this planet has water (which they think is very likely), there is definitely life there.

I once saw a UFO before.  Whether it is extraterrestrial or not, I don't know, but it was definitely an unidentified, flying object.  Read it here:

http://jigg.xanga.com/7483639/item/

 

As for making a change, I would focus on improving education dramatically around the world.  If I could, I would develop a system to fire (or retrain) all the teachers who are not qualified and then hire new teachers.  I believe the education system is flawed in this country, but other countries also have flawed systems.  I think we need to systematically try to improve it so that there is less ignorance and more of a means to improve society as a whole.  I mean, the fact that a significant % of the people in this country believe that our President is Muslim, means there is much to overcome.  More importantly, we need to educate the third world countries so that they may have a chance of building a better place to live by trying to eliminate hunger and disease.

 

Leehom huh?  I have a positive opinion about him.  I mean, I don't love him or anything, but he has some songs that were really good when I listened to a lot of Chinese music back in the day.  Is he admirable?  Sure.  I guess anyone who is talented enough to make it to celebrity status is admiration in his/her own way.  I would say that he is quite talented, so if that's not admirable, I don't know what is.

I speak Cantonese fluently.  When I was living in Hong Kong for work right after I graduated from college, I was able to meet with clients and communicate with them without any issue.  I don't think any of them realized that I was born in the US because I speak with the HK accent.  I also speak Hakka (ke jia hua) fluently as well without accent.  I can understand Mandarin and speak a little bit, but it's very bad.  I wish I spoke it better, but I guess it gets by.

 

Because what we can't have seems much more desirable for us, as compared to things we can get.  I really have no concrete answer.  There are many things I desire that I don't have, but I don't know of anything that I desire because I can't have it.

 

I wouldn't call myself a dog lover.  I like dogs and maybe would warm up to the idea of having one.  With that said, if I were to get one, it would be a medium to big dog.  Huskies would definitely make the list.  German Shepards, Labradors, and maybe even Pitbulls would make the list.

 

"Be careful of what you wish for."  That quote has always made me second guess my wishes.  We all want things that might be impossible, but what are the consequences?  Like Midas who wished for the golden touch and then turned his daughter to gold.  With that said, if I wished for the entire world to be disease free, what would that lead to?  Overpopulation?  No need for doctors?  If I wished for money, would I be blinded by the wealth?  It's hard to say.

I think I would wish for knowledge--knowledge of the universe, knowledge of science and technology, and knowledge of history and language.  That way, I can create and build things to improve life.

My second wish would be to teleportation.  I wish to be able to see whatever place in my mind and then teleport there.  I can travel anywhere, anytime.

My third wish might not be a good idea, but it would probably to open everyone's eyes on the truths about religion and faith.  Maybe there is a God and he does live in heaven.  Whatever is the truth, everyone would know.  If there is no such thing as higher power, everyone would know.  It would be one less thing to fight and kill people over.

 

I think this question game is really tame.  I've played this on numerous occasions before and the questions were a lot tougher.  I think you can search for them in the search bar and see what I mean.  Usually, I would do it for a day or two, but I'll try and keep this up till tomorrow afternoon.

I started blogging in March of 2002.  My bestfriend had a Xanga and she was writing in it.  I was new to the idea of blogs and decided that maybe putting my thoughts down somewhere for people to read would be a good idea.  At first, a lot of my friends had their own blogs and we were all connected.  Now, most people I know don't blog anymore, but taking their place are others.  Blogging has definitely grown exponentially since when I began over 8 years.

 

This is a tough question.  I used to have favorite positions, but it's not so much anymore.  We try something different everytime and there's definitely a pro and con to each position.  At the same time, it's not really what I like but what positions that make her feel good.

Asking about my sexuality doesn't bother me at all.  I'm pretty open to questions.  I think the difficulty of answering these questions is really how much I'm disclosing about someone else.  Like if I told you a story and it had to do with my wife, you'd know something about HER, which is not something I want to get into.  While I'm whatever about answering, she might not like it.

Just like there are many vampire fanatics, there's a smaller zombie fanatic group--people who love watching and reading about the undead. Growing up, I used to watch the zombie movies with my hands covering my face, peeking through the gaps between my fingers which were strategically split for for viewing.

I've watched pretty much every zombie movie and read about 90% of all the books including, "The Zombie Survival Guide," a bible against a zombie apocalypse. And the more I read, the more I try to envision what I would do if there really was such a thing. Call me paranoid, but I DO believe there are secret experiments done by the government on chemical and biological advancement. Who knows if these experiments would create something viral and cause people to attack one another, whether it be something that really turns them into the undead, or just an extreme form of rabies. Okay, maybe I am paranoid, but it's not impossible right?

Call me crazy, but I think if I really were to get rich one day, one of the first things I would do with my money is build some kind of bunker in the mountains, in case of ANY kind of apocalypse, whether viral or nuclear. It would be fortified deep within a mountain, with an energy source (solar panels?), food, and water. I can't imagine it being able to protect me for years, but probably enough resources for several months to figure out what the hell to do. So now all I need to do is hit the lottery.

But assuming that I don't, I'd probably die if any kind of attack were to occur. I live in NYC, a primary target for nuclear strikes. If there was to be any kind of biological outbreak, there would simply be nowhere to run. Most of us have seen, I AM LEGEND, to know that. I guess in that sense, just hope to have enough supplies at home like canned foods and water. Gas and electricity would be a hot commodity, Weapons would mostly be what you can get at a hardware store. All you can do is stay indoors and keep the lights off because other people who are scavenging, may now be your enemies.

The Zombie Survival Guide says to not go to the police station because that's what most people would do. The cops would probably barricade themselves in and shoot anything that moves, which would include you. Malls are not a good idea either because that's where everyone else would go. People who have the potential to live in the movies, often die because of desperation and stupidity. How many times have we sat there, watching them to something stupid like opening the door? Haven't they learned at some point in their life the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat?"

Anyway, sorry about the morbid post. I'm reading, "The Passage" by Justin Cronin, which is about a viral outbreak in this country. It's definitely a page turner and hard to put down. I heard it's part of a trilogy, so maybe you want to wait for all three to come out. Definitely worth your time.

Anyway, if you have read this far, you're probably either a zombie fan yourself. Either that or you love my writing and we both know how far love can take you. What would you do if there was ever such an attack? Do you ever think about it? Like wonder if such a thing can happen in our lives?

Mrs. jigg and I have been wandering around malls during our free time, usually dress shopping for all the weddings we attend. One thing I have noticed is that half the time, the women do not pull out their wallets until the cashier tells them exactly how much it is. I notice it because it really annoys me when people hold up the line, doing something they should have done minutes before.

I think they don't notice it, just like how Mrs. jigg used to take out her wallet and Metrocard when she got to the turnstile to get onto the subway, versus already having the card ready and not having to stop. I always had to wait, as well as the people behind me and it was frustrating and embarrassing. I told her once about it about it and she developed the habit to have it ready as soon as she walked into the subway station.

Sometimes, men do this as well, but I realized it's usually when they're distracted, like when they're chatting away or when they are checking out girls-- as if they cannot do two things at once. But in all honesty, I've only seen it a few times.

I guess these are the things that people have to realize themselves. It's weird because if I saw someone else in front of me not have their wallet ready when the cashier is all done with the packaging, I'd know to make sure my payment is out. Yet I've seen on one occasion where I was on a line with three women in front of me and they ALL waited till the cashier rang everything up, before they reached into their bags for their wallets, as if you should only be ready to pay when asked, and not before.

I've also noticed that this only happens in malls and sometimes at drug stores. At supermarkets I've never seen it happen even once! They usually have their discount/club card handy, along with their coupons and form of payment out.

My theory is that women probably see the mall as a place for them to relax and enjoy. There's no rush to get out of the door, whereas men just want to pay for their goods and get out, either to go to another store or go home.

Any thoughts on this? Are you once of those people who wait till the very last moment to pull your wallet out? Am I the only one who is crazy and gets annoyed by this?

EDIT:  Nimbusthedragon pointed out in her comment that this shouldn't be a gendered issue.  Yes, I am generalizing, but I think it's a gendered issue because that's what I have observed.  It literally happens over 50% of the time!

Now, I'm not saying every women is like this and obviously, a large enough % of women DON'T do it (under 50%), but men don't really do this at all.  Mrs. jigg and I have been going to the mall at least once a month for the past 6-7 months and we go into a lot of shops.  I usually stand on the side while she pays and I just watch this happening, time and time again!

Maybe this only happens in the tri-state area and no one else in the rest of the world does this?  Who knows.  I'm just saying that based on my observations, this is what I have noticed.

I got my first tattoo in 2004, something that symbolizes my fraternity on my upper left arm. Just like most people who get tattoos, it becomes addictive and I decided to get one tattoo a year, for the next ten. So far, I still only have one.

Getting a new tattoo isn't easy. I don't want to just get anything. It has to be meaningful--able to tell a story about me if someone just looked at them. I've decided to keep all the things that are important to me on the left, and all the things that are meaningful to me on the right.

My next tattoo, I have decided will be on my right forearm. Five years ago, I decided that I would never get animals as tattoos because I thought it was tacky. Five years later, I have decided to get a koi fish, swimming up my forearm.

There are a lot of problems with getting a tattoo--everything from the design, to who your tattoo artist is. You don't just want anyone doing it because it's permanent. Next, you have to worry about how much it costs. I'm going to assume this one is going to cost about 600-700, with color and everything. I had trouble saving for it because I'm also saving for a wedding. Good thing one of my friends offered to sponsor for a part of it, if I get it by the end of this year. It was a big help with my decision.

At the moment, I can't get it because I have to practice swimming in a pool and the chlorine is really bad for tattoos. My Tough Mudder run is the weekend before Thanksgiving and I really need all the training I can get to finish the 12 mile run that's loaded with crazy obstacle courses.

In any event, I'm really excited. I'm also planning on getting a tattoo on my left to symbolize Mrs. jigg. I'm going to have a tattoo for each of my kids as well. It's going to epic!

I know about once a year, I blog about tattoos and it seems like I've written one not too long ago. What are your thoughts on tattoos? Have one? Ten? What do you have and where is it? Want more? If possible, can you provide a link to some pics?

As I driving home last night from one of my cousin's wedding, one of my aunts was telling me about two people I was friends with growing up. They lived a couple of houses down, in a two bedroom basement with a family consisting of a mother, father, son and daughter.

My aunt was telling me how both the brother and sister had not worked for years. At first, I was thinking 1-2 years, but it turns out it has been over 3 years for the brother. How is it possible to allow yourself to be unemployed for over 3 years? It's baffling to me partially because I can't imagine not working for that long, but because there are still jobs available here in New York, everything from data entry to waitering at restaurants--jobs that might not make you rich, but would certainly pay the bills. How does a person allow themselves to sit home for years?

Personally, I'm not sure if the story is true because it sounds so unbelievable. My aunt's rough estimate was close to 5 years and I'm not sure how that's possible. How can you be 30 years old and still live off your parents? I would be ferociously looking for jobs everyday and if I can't find something I want to do, I'd swallow my pride and do something else--whatever I can for work and being productive. How do you explain to someone at a job interview that your last job was 3-4 years ago?

Both my parents are not working for medical reasons and I can tell how being unemployed is eating them away mentally. They have enough savings to last them till the end of their days, but not doing anything all day is tough for two people who had started working since before they were teenagers.

I can't imagine myself retiring and kicking back. I would assume that I would still have some kind of side business to keep me occupied.

Tell me readers, am I the only person who thinks it's crazy not to work? If God-forbid you lose your job now and couldn't find something in over a year, would you do whatever jobs that are available just to make ends meet? What if you hit the lottery? How would you spend your days? I know people who would just kick back and do nothing for the rest of their lives and be fine with it. Would you?

EDIT:  This entry doesn't apply to stay-at-home moms/dads.  That's definitely a job in itself!  And as for hitting the lottery--I'm talking about people who hit the lottery and stay home and do nothing.  If I hit the lottery, I would travel the world and use that money to buy as many experiences as I can.  That's being productive.  But to stay at home and just stay idle is something I cannot imagine doing.

I never really understood the concept of being "Friends" on Xanga. I guess it's a status that allows more options like Friendslock and the new Xanga chat but besides that, what else is it good for? Most Xangans want to have more friends anyway and they pretty much add anyone.

Well, maybe I'm like that. Anyone who adds me as a friend gets approved if I go to their site and there's content on it. Sites that do not have even five entries, pretty much get rejected, especially those that have been around for a while. This person could be someone who doesn't blog and has a site to browse and comment, or someone who has their entries on private. Either way, I cannot tell if this person is really a blogger or not, and I decided the main criteria is that this person has to be one.

What privileges does anyone have being my friend? I have no idea. I don't have Friendslock or Xanga Chat, so I'm not really sure why anyone wants to friend me.

Mrs. jigg has an even stricter requirement. If she has not met you in person, she will not accept your friend request. I guess she has her reasons and I'm not interested enough to ask her why. Not like it matters anyway.

On the otherhand, I block quite a few people. Anyone who spams my site, gets blocked automatically. You leave a comment with links, advertising stuff? Deleted and blocked. People who send mass messages will also be blocked. First one is a freebie. Second pointless mass message results in a block. Unfortunately, quite a few bloggers I read did that in the past so I just unfriended them and blocked them. Sure I could send them a PM, telling them to stop MMing, but who am I to tell anyone what to do? It may be passive aggressive, but it's not like they are anyone I know.

As for subscribing, I have a five entries rule. I read the first five entries on the page. If I like all five, I subscribe right away. If I like at least two, I am will to go to the next page and find the remaining three. If I find two more, I'll read the next five to find at least one more. Usually, I would unsubscribe if I am repeatedly reading entries that I don't like. It could be because of topics, style of writing or simply their writer's opinions. Whatever the case may be, I do it without confrontation. I wonder if anyone ever notices who unsubscribes to them.

Anyway, those are my rules. Do you have any rules when it comes to how you deal with other users?

EDIT:  I just thought of this--I know some people automatically assume that if they subscribe to you, you should sub them back.  Do people still have this mentality?  I never understood why anyone would feel that way since you should only be subscribing because of content that you like.

Since we have gotten married, we haven't encountered the question of when we are expecting kids yet. Maybe it's an indication that times have changed and people don't expect you to pop out kids right after marriage. Or maybe it hasn't settled in yet that Mrs. jigg and I are really married.

Of course, we talk about kids all the time. We even have names thought up for boys and girls. However, we both agree that we still have a lot of time (before her eggs dry up) and we should experience married life or a couple of years first before becoming parents. It's hard to do things like traveling when you have children. Vacation becomes going to places they want to be like Disney, rather than trips to the L'Ouvre or roam the streets of Rome (pardon the pun).

Becoming parents is a huge responsibility and it takes a lot of planning. This weekend, we got into a discussion about someone we both know who I thought was a weak guy. He was scared and paranoid about everything and in his thirties, has finally had his first girlfriend who he will be marrying sometime this year. Having being brought up with only sisters and a father who was too laid back to care, he grew up meek. I commented that I didn't want my son(s) growing up to be like that--someone who couldn't stand up for himself. On the otherhand, I'd be disappointed if my daughters marry someone like him, someone who gets walked over all the time.

Although we would like to believe that parents have a huge influence on how their children turn out, I simply believe it's just one of many variables. I think personalities dictate how each experience affects them. So even if all our kids experience the same things from us as parents, they will still all turn out differently.

Mrs jigg and I discussed about the difficulties of finding the balance between parents who neglect their children where those children tend to grow up more likely to be independent, but also more resentful (kind of like me) or the modern day parents who are helicopters and hover over every aspect of their children's growth, often teaching them everything but not allowing them to grow and mature on their own.

I guess when the time comes, we'll just do the best we can and try to make the most sensible choice given to us. I also want to adopt someone who didn't have a chance of having a real family. Still, this isn't something that's going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, if you don't have children yet, how many years in your marriage do you think you will wait before popping them out? Do you think you will be the type who let's them grow on their own, or hover over every aspect of their lives?

When the first plane hit one of the towers, I was about to walk out of my Lower East Side apartment, a roughly 15 minute walk from what is now known as Ground Zero. I heard the impact and the explosion, which sounded like a big dumpster truck hitting a pothole. Like almost every American, I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing and how I felt.

I'm not sure what it is, but while most people I have spoken to in the last couple of years from out of state told me they were terrified and scared since we were under attack, most New Yorkers experienced something else. Sure these events were shocking, but few expressed fear. It was mostly shock at first and when it was all over, it was mainly anger and sadness. It's as if we didn't have time for fear and we entirely skipped over it.

No one here really talks about 9/11 much. It comes up in conversation, but mostly with out of towners. We have this innate understanding amongst us that we don't need to share. Virtually every person I know feels that though having a mosque near there isn't such a good idea, none are against it being built. Most of the opponents are a very small minority of people who are passionate enough to speak out about it. The rest of us who believe in the freedoms of speech and religion, don't care enough to go against them because whether or not the mosque is there, does not affect us. People who never understood how it feels to have their rights taken away, how it feels to be persecuted by others because they are different, are the ones who are so openly willing to take away the rights of others.

We recognize 9/11 to be a tragic day, yet most of us continue with our lives. Most New Yorkers do not spend 9/11 at events to commemorate it. There are a ton of non-9/11 events that happen on 9/11 throughout New York City. Only non-New Yorkers think it's sacrilegious to do so. While we should remember those who have fallen, we must continue with our lives of normalcy--the opposite of what the terrorists want.

While 9/11 is not a normal day, most New Yorkers try to treat it like one. People outside of NY cannot understand this. Why should we allow our lives, who have already been changed 9 years ago, continue to be changed on this day, every year? Why do Americans continue to persecute others who are different by burning Korans and opposing the freedoms that our fore-fathers built this country with? As Lincoln once said, no foreign enemy can destroy this country--it can only be destroyed from within and these people are the ones who are willing to take away the freedoms of others.