Challenging freedom means no freedom.

Talk about polarizing.

The discussion about building a mosque near Ground Zero is reaching a boiling point, and the truth is, there will be no winner. Advocate for the building of the mosque, and you're anti-American and pro-terrorist. Rally against the mosque, and you're anti-freedom.

I vividly remember the morning of September 11, 2001. I wandered into my english classroom a few minutes early, and rather than greet me, my teacher stood staring at the classroom television, hand over her mouth. She and I stood together watching, my classmates started trickling in, and a few minutes later, the second plane flew into the tower.

Shortly after, video of President Bush reading to elementary schoolers was released, a Secret Service Agent whispering into his ear, then his face going grey.

I don't have to recount these moments for you, it's likely you remember them the same way I do.

We went to war over this. We lost not only the people in the towers and on the planes that day, we've lost troops and allies over this. For what? Freedom, liberty, the American Dream?

The American Dream, which now seems to have relocated from the purple mountains and fruited plains to between a rock and a hard place, is like a nostalgic patch on an Americana quilt. Don't get me wrong, for those of us born here, the Dream can be achieved. But its roots as a means for anyone to achieve betterment and a life of freedom has been hacked at by an anti-immigrant, anti-non-Anglo mentality.

We're a country founded on religious freedom (think back to history class, friends, religious persecution is one of the reasons settlers wanted separation from England), but now there's an expectation of a whole religion to keep their distance in one of the most congested cities in the world.

We could debate the tact of building a mosque so close to a piece of land forever scarred by 9/11, but the reality is, they have a right to do it.

Islam, as a whole, is not representative of the small percentage of extremists who have, quite literally, hijacked the religion for their own evil plans. We don't judge all Christians or Germans based on atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler, nor should we condemn a whole religion for the actions of a few who have twisted their doctrine into something the majority of Muslims don't recognize.

We should always honor those who have sacrificed for our Constitution and our freedoms as Americans, but denying religious freedom doesn't honor the sacrifice, it mocks it.

For obvious reasons, this is an emotional issue, but we should not forget that our Constitution was written to provide rational guidance free from emotional argument. Particularly for Constitutional fundamentalists, this is a chance to adhere to what our Founding Fathers believed, and uphold one of the greatest aspects of being an American.