It is a bright, Indian summer afternoon in the Litchfield Hills, and the downtown streets of this tourist mecca look invitingly peaceful.

But the communication lines connecting First Selectwoman Ruth Epstein to the outside world have been anything but peaceful for two weeks as the passions aroused by the 9/11 tragedy have turned Kent into a national lightning rod over terrorism, Islam and the role towns should play in memorializing the dead.

Epstein, a former journalist who is stepping down after two terms as first selectwoman, was approached more than a year ago by Peter Gadiel, the father of James Gadiel, a young Kent native who worked as a trader in the World Trade Center and perished in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Gadiel suggested that the town consider erecting a plaque at town hall in memory of his lost son.

"I told Gadiel that I thought that was a fine idea because Jamie Gadiel was a lovely young man who had grown up in town and we all knew from the schools," Epstein said. "All we needed to decide was where the memorial should go and what would be the wording on the plaque."

But negotiations broke down this summer after Gadiel contacted Epstein with this proposed wording: "James Gadiel, lifelong resident of Kent, murdered in the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001."

Epstein said that she felt torn between the legitimate request of a family for a memorial, and what she felt certain would be objections by residents to the "inflammatory tone" of the proposed plaque. She turned for help to Selectman Bruce Adams, a popular retired history teacher who had taught James Gadiel at the Kent public schools and will succeed Epstein as first selectman this month.

Together, Epstein and Adams researched the wording on other 9/11 memorials. They could find no reference to "Muslim terrorists" or similar language, but they continued talking with Gadiel to reach an agreement. But when those talks broke down, the board of selectmen voted in September against using Gadiel's wording on a plaque that would be displayed on town property.

"Language is extremely important, and words can either heal or hurt people," Epstein said. "And we just didn't feel that this proposed wording reflected the diverse, welcoming town that Kent has come to be."

Epstein said she was particularly concerned because Kent has three private schools with many foreign students and a lively community of artists and writers. She was concerned that the proposed wording might offend Muslims who work in or visit Kent.

Gadiel, the volunteer director for a 9/11 victims' group, 9/11 Families for a Secure America Foundation, protested the selectmen's decision in an October op-ed piece in the Litchfield County Times, and the controversy soon went viral on conservative websites and Fox News.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly devoted a segment of his show on Sept. 29 to the Gadiel plaque and has vowed that he'll charter a bus and "march into Kent" if the town doesn't agree to Gadiel's proposed wording.

Gadiel said he believes there has been a deliberate movement across the country to "deny" that Arab terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, a suppression of the truth that Gadiel said has deeply offended those who lost family members in the 2001 attacks. Memorials for 9/11 victims from New York to California, Gadiel said, have consistently failed to identify the terrorists who caused the tragedy.

"This is political correctness in the extreme because they make it sound like these buildings just collapsed," he said.

"If you look at Holocaust memorials around the world, they do mention the German perpetrators. The Pearl Harbor memorial does not mention the Japanese, but the museum all around the memorial is all about the rise of Japanese militarism in the 1940s. So, there's been no attempt to whitewash history elsewhere, but with 9/11 there is this pattern of denying the perpetrators."

Over the past two weeks, after attacks on Epstein and Kent on conservative blogs, and then the O'Reilly show, Epstein has been flooded with e-mails and phone messages from across the country, most of them critical of the town's position.

"I hope you and your family are murdered by terrorists," one e-mail to Epstein read. Another said: "Hope your town is the first to fall in a nuclear holocaust."

John Milnes Baker, a Kent architect, is one of the few residents of Kent who has surfaced to agree with Gadiel. In an e-mail to Epstein Monday, Baker wrote: "To sanitize this memorial in the name of politically correct 'sensitivity' to the imagined feelings of purported 'Muslim families who live and work in Kent or who might visit the community' is absurd."

But, during a walking tour of downtown Kent on Monday, few people agreed with this position.

Jerry White is a veteran of the Korean conflict and a former Army reservist who served on the committee that just spent two years raising funds for a new war memorial on Maple Avenue in Kent. He was given Kent's Veteran of the Year award this year, and seems to confirm Epstein's conclusion that most residents support the selectmen's position.

"I spent a year fighting in Korea, but that doesn't make me hate the Chinese," White said. "Using wording like 'murdered by terrorists' isn't appropriate for a memorial. Language like that will just inflame Muslims, and Lord knows we've already got too many problems in the world to invite trouble like that."

Source: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-kent-memorial-1110.artnov10,0...