DC Trawler

Refusing to take a construction job is a violation of religious freedom

Font Size:

For the past week, we’ve been hit over the head with the claim that if the developers of the Not-at-Ground-Zero Not-a-Mosque are persuaded not to build it, or to build it at another location, you might as well throw a Nazi salute with the hand that’s not wiping your butt with the First Amendment. And if you question the inescapable logic of this, it’s just further proof that you’re a bigot.

Here’s the thing, though: Buildings don’t build themselves. Who’s going to construct this magnificent monument to interfaith harmony?

Not these guys (NYDN):

A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero.

“It’s a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,” said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

Whoa, whoa, let’s slow down here, Dave. Just because you work at Ground Zero doesn’t mean you know anything about Ground Zero. “Sacred ground”? Haven’t you seen the sandwich shops and strip clubs and sidewalk vendors all over the place? If it was sacred ground, they would’ve bulldozed the whole area and done away with the vigorous capitalism that Mohammed Atta & Friends were trying to destroy.

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the “Hard Hat Pledge” on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

“Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country,” said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. “People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there.”

It was only a matter of time before Andrew Sullivan got the Village People back together.

Well, if they can’t get construction crews to work on it, it’ll be up to our nation’s newly minted religious-freedom-fighters to step in and get their hands dirty. Pack your lunchpail, Glenn Greenwald. Strap on your hardhat, Alan Grayson. Roll up that pack of Luckys in the sleeve of your sweat-stained t-shirt, Keith Olbermann. Git ‘er done!

Jim Treacher