Nonetheless, the story did die eventually, as it should have, so why the hell am I bringing it up again?  Well, does anybody ever remember how a news story ends, at what point public interest dissolves, and we move onto the next peccadillo?  I don’t.   Most times, news is this fluid living organism that is constantly reshaping itself to fit the vessel it occupies.  The demarcation point between stories only ever happens when a new story breaks and captures the public’s collectively short attention span.

This story, though, is different. Some may disagree, but to me it has a definite end, and it’s all because of one the Better Men I’ve seen in a while.  Not Jon Stewart – this guy.

This is Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf.  He’s the man behind the plans for Park51  (the proper name of the cultural center, changed after Newt Gingrich said its original name Cordoba House was an affront to Christians for reasons that are neither interesting nor accurate).

Rauf has been an imam in New York for 27 years now.  He has a reputation for moderate views, and is the author of several books on Western/Islamic relations whose basic message can be distilled down to “can’t we all just get along?”  He’s the Islamic equivalent of an Anglican priest, except people actually enjoy going to Rauf’s mosque.

You might remember Rauf for suggesting during an interview on 60 Minutes right after 9/11 that American foreign policy might have played a role in the attacks (since the CIA had trained Osama Bid Laden and other Mujahadeen fighters back in the 80s when they were fighting the Russians in Afghanistan).  Whether true or not, simply saying it showed a tin ear for the public’s mood, and Rauf took a beating for his comments.

He must’ve learned his lesson because he didn’t say or do much when the mosque controversy erupted – either that, or he made the mistake of any sane person in thinking people would realize how stupid the issue was and turn their attention to things that matter, like Lindsay Lohan going to jail.   It was only after it became apparent the story would not die a natural death that he was forced to step forward and kill it, and in the only manner available to him:  Rauf killed it (KILLED IT!)  with his gravitas.

Gravitas is from Latin, meaning “weighty bearing, a quality of substance and depth of personality or personal dignity.”  It’s one of my favorite words, although since I write mostly about myself I have little occasion to use it.  Rauf, on the other hand, has gravitas, and so much of it.  In fact, I would argue that if through some kind of karmic accounting all of us are entitled to a certain portion of gravitas, then Rauf is probably guilty of stealing all the gravitas that was supposed to go to every pundit at Fox News.

Last month, Rauf finally weighed in on the issue during an interview with CNN,  and what distinguished the man was his rationality, his grace, his steadfast refusal to demean himself by getting angry.  All he did was say, in a firm but measured tone, that while he was open to moving the mosque, doing that or perhaps killing the project altogether would be an excellent excuse for radical Islamists to recruit more people who want to kill Americans, that it would reaffirm their wrongheaded belief that America is worthy of their hatred and condemnation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XysMxIhMllU&feature=related

Maybe it was the way he said it, but it sounded like the most sensible thing anyone had said about the issue. Mind you, that didn’t prevent the jugheads at Fox News from trying to spin it as though he had threatened the safety of America, but it was too late.  The story had suffered its mortal wound, because it’s hard to fight common sense with fear, especially when that common sense is delivered by a man with gravitas – someone charismatic but not glib,  compelling but not intense, someone to be taken seriously but is not necessarily threatening.   After all the hand-wringing, pundits have wisely and quietly dropped the mosque issue and gone onto something else.

So the lesson here is simple: if you are sensible, well-spoken, dignified, immune to histrionics, and strategic in terms of when and why you speak, you could have the last word on any issue.  It may not work every time, but a Better Man should hope for as much.

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