Fox's O'Reilly chides Kent in 9-11 tribute spat

BY GEORGE KRIMSKY REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

KENT — Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly has taken aim at the Town of Kent for refusing to grant a local man's wish that a town memorial to his son, who was killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, should read: "Murdered by Muslim Terrorists."

In his evening television program Thursday, O'Reilly said he supported Peter Gadiel's request for such an inscription in the face of refusal by Kent's Town Hall. He labeled as "political correctness" remarks by First Selectman Ruth S. Epstein that such wording would disparage an ethnic group and would be "against everything that we stand for here." The town administration has said it would favor a memorial to Gadiel's son, James, who died in the north tower of the World Trade Center at the age of 23, but it would not permit that particular wording on a plaque on town property, paid for by tax dollars. "He can do whatever he wants on his own property," Epstein said this weekend.