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Religious Correctness in Litchfield

Litchfield.jpeg

You can understand a father’s wanting to put a fine point on a memorial to his son, who died at the age of 23 in the World Trade Center on 9/11. What Peter Gadiel wants the memorial to say of his son James is:

A gentleman and a gentle man
Lifelong resident of Kent

Murdered by Moslem extremists

The Litchfield selectmen won’t do it, on the grounds that it would be insensitive and inappropriate. Naturally, Bill O’Reilly thinks this is an unconscionable exercise in political correctness. It might be worth putting the shoe on another foot.


Let’s suppose that a relative asked Oklahoma City to erect a monument to those killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that included the phrase, “Murdered by a Christian extremist.” Or let’s put a finer point on it and imagine a proposal to erect a monument in Amherst, N.Y. to Dr. George Slepian, the Jewish doctor murdered in his home in 1998 by James Charles Kopp, a Catholic member of the militant anti-abortion group, The Lambs of God. And that the monument said, “Murdered by a Catholic extremist.” Do you think Bill O’Reilly would criticize the Amherst town councilors for refusing to erect such a monument?

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