The Islamic Community Center

I've been looking through Facebook where many pragmatists have come out with doubts about the Islamic community center--I suspect it is because they don't want to hurt the feelings of the local residents. Yet a recent poll showed that a majority of the people of Manhattan favor building the community center. Community Board 1, which represents the area, including the 9/11 site, voted 29 to 1 in favor of the community center. Manhattan itself is polyglot. And, as Hendrik Hertzberg put it, anguish "is not an entitlement to abandon rationality."