Blake Schwarzenbach of forgetters, Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil has posted a thoughtful essay on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary talking about New York City in general as well as commenting on the Islamic Center controversy:

I know that when people are critical of memorial holidays it can come off as churlish and arch, and I don't want to be that anymore; I don't want to be part of the culture of complaint, the whinging left that can never be happy unless it is battling upwards against nefarious superpowers. So I would suggest this: let us be sad for once and re-affirm our commitment to being alive while we can.

Check it out here.