I was shocked by this this Wall Street Journal op-ed by Debra Burlingame, which is quickly spreading through the blogosphere. It explains how the left-leaning "International Freedom Center" (IFC) has effectively claimed a huge chunk of the 9-11 memorial site for its own ends, all without a word of criticism from New York Gov. George Pataki or Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Instead of simply honoring the heroes and remembering the tragedy, the IFC is planning to build a 300,000-square-foot "Freedom Center" at Ground Zero that will function as a gruesome catalog of American and other sins:
In fact, there was once a much more appropriate 9-11 memorial on almost the very same site. I saw it while I was visiting New York one year after the terrorist attacks. It was made by people who still felt the pain of that day — people who knew what was important, what had to be said, and what had to be done. Here it is:
Along the fence surrounding Trinity Church, New Yorkers and visitors from around the world left wreaths, cards, posters, and flowers. There were Brazilian flags and British caps, German ribbons and Israeli T-shirts, all with handwritten pledges of hope, support, sorrow, and vengeance.
You very rarely see people in New York standing still and keeping quiet, but along that fence, there was no sound and no movement. People stopped walking, stood there, and contemplated. Some cried, silently.
Across the street, I found the most remarkable part of this ad hoc, grass-roots memorial. In the Chelsea Jeans store, owner David Cohen had decided to preserve part of the sales floor exactly as it was after the towers fell:
Cohen spent $10,000 of his own money sealing off a small display behind glass panels. Inside, flakes of ash and fine powdery soot still clung to the stacks of neatly-folded jeans and the rows of striped sweaters. Ironically, a tank top with an American flag design hung boldly in front.
The Trinity Church fence has long since been returned to its normal state; I remember hearing that all the items hung on it were transferred to the Smithsonian for storage. And while many people came to look at David Cohen's glass-enclosed display, business never picked up and he was forced to close the store. The display is gone, too.
It's unfortunate that we've lost these raw, improvised memorials. And it's incumbent upon us to replace them with something equally powerful — something that will let visitors reconnect with the memories and the wrenching emotions of 9-11. The IFC's Freedom Center, which Jeff Jarvis has dubbed "a Why They Hate Us Pavillion", not only falls short of the mark, it insults the spirits of those who died when the towers fell.
Our 9-11 memorial should focus on the horrors, the losses, the memories, and the sacrifices of that terrible day. It should not be used to advance a political agenda, especially that of the anti-American left.
FOLLOW-UP:
I quoted a brief snippet of the Burlingame op-ed above, but this is really one of those cases where you simply have to read the whole thing. In case the WSJ link goes bad, I've saved a copy in Word format here.
Also be sure to check out GOPbloggers and Michelle Malkin, which include information on how you can protest the IFC's plan.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
Take Back the Memorial has plenty of information on how you can help to do just that.
YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
GOPbloggers has an update with information from a spokeswoman from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (Found via LGF.)
Instead of simply honoring the heroes and remembering the tragedy, the IFC is planning to build a 300,000-square-foot "Freedom Center" at Ground Zero that will function as a gruesome catalog of American and other sins:
The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.People coming to a 9-11 memorial don't want to be forced to think about slavery, or how settlers treated Native Americans 200 years ago. Is a 9-11 memorial that focuses on 9-11 too much to ask for?
In fact, there was once a much more appropriate 9-11 memorial on almost the very same site. I saw it while I was visiting New York one year after the terrorist attacks. It was made by people who still felt the pain of that day — people who knew what was important, what had to be said, and what had to be done. Here it is:
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Across the street, I found the most remarkable part of this ad hoc, grass-roots memorial. In the Chelsea Jeans store, owner David Cohen had decided to preserve part of the sales floor exactly as it was after the towers fell:
 |
The Trinity Church fence has long since been returned to its normal state; I remember hearing that all the items hung on it were transferred to the Smithsonian for storage. And while many people came to look at David Cohen's glass-enclosed display, business never picked up and he was forced to close the store. The display is gone, too.
It's unfortunate that we've lost these raw, improvised memorials. And it's incumbent upon us to replace them with something equally powerful — something that will let visitors reconnect with the memories and the wrenching emotions of 9-11. The IFC's Freedom Center, which Jeff Jarvis has dubbed "a Why They Hate Us Pavillion", not only falls short of the mark, it insults the spirits of those who died when the towers fell.
Our 9-11 memorial should focus on the horrors, the losses, the memories, and the sacrifices of that terrible day. It should not be used to advance a political agenda, especially that of the anti-American left.
FOLLOW-UP:
I quoted a brief snippet of the Burlingame op-ed above, but this is really one of those cases where you simply have to read the whole thing. In case the WSJ link goes bad, I've saved a copy in Word format here.
Also be sure to check out GOPbloggers and Michelle Malkin, which include information on how you can protest the IFC's plan.
ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
Take Back the Memorial has plenty of information on how you can help to do just that.
YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
GOPbloggers has an update with information from a spokeswoman from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. (Found via LGF.)
Posted by Bojack
How quickly they forget 9/11, the biggest attack on American soil.
Posted by Chris K
One measure of America's strong national character is that so many of its citizens feel so little need for self-pity or self-aggrandizement.
The IFC project at ``Ground Zero'' shows how much more broad-minded, intellectually charitable and politically mature Americans tend to be than, for example, Japanese, who tend to be far too insecure to view events like World War II with the kind of emotional detachment and objectivity so many Americans demand of themselves.
Japan is typical among nations in this regard. Few countries, if any, can match America's political and intellectual development as demonstrated by its willingness to scrutinize the good, the bad and the ugly elements of its history, its role in the world and current events.
The IFC's proposal for ``Ground Zero'' is a magnificent display of American confidence, optimism and big-minded love of freedom and truth. It will be a shining, positive example for all nations, and a powerful repudiation to those that fetishize their sense of victimhood and seek to turn lust for revenge into a national trait.
Posted by bunkerbuster
Right now that giant wound in the ground is the best reminder to America that we were attacked and who gives an F why they hate us. Without any over-educated committe to F it up, people from all over the world can get it with no captions. There is a hole in the ground because some insane mf's ran airplanes into the towers. period. My friends from Japan got it pretty quick last summer. I didn't need to explain anything.
Posted by tokyobk
Bush-Cheney still lack the resolve and moral courage to ask the American pay for a war they've insisted is absolutely necessary. Without the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other loans to the U.S., we'd be flat broke with no way at all to pay for the fatal festivities in Iraq.
At some point, TokyoBK, you're going to have to get over your feelings of victimhood and revenge fetish and take a look at the facts about what America's real strengths are and are not.
Posted by bunkerbuster
Posted by tokyobk
Posted by Christian
Indeed, TokyoBK's view on that is identical to bin Laden's. But what on earth is avenged by the speculative aggression against Iraq?
Posted by bunkerbuster
Posted by tokyobk
Posted by Dave
Posted by bunkerbuster
What are we going to do next? Change high school history books to portray all the atrocities early America commited and do away with the great accomplishments of this country? That would keep kids from feeling like America is better than anyother country because we can't have too much patriotism.
I guess that is one of the reasons behind the 'hijacking' of ground zero. This way people won't get the wrong idea of America. Because the IFC wants to show that America is not the victim but the cause of the attacks. They want to make it clear that had we been a perfect country this would not have happend. Had we not treated people the way we did during the history of America we might actually have respect from the other "perfect" societies around the world. Oh yeah that's right, America is the only county that needs to be perfect.
That's what we thrive for right? I mean, we are the only ones who hold ourselves up to the standards of a truly humane society, and I'm quite proud of that. But, there's also nothing wrong with honoring the victims of 9/11 with a memorial, without bringing up atrocities and wrongdoings of America. They (IFC and others) have the money, so why don't they build their own 'museum' of American atrocities on their own property? I'll tell you why. Because the WTC site is going to attract thousands of people that they can infect whereas, if they built there own 'museum' very few people would come to see it. This is the only way they can get Americans to see that they are to blame.
God forbid we have anything honoring 9/11 without some extreme left group trying to show that America is to blame. Shame on them.
Posted by Chris K
The memorial should be about remembering the citizens who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on september the 11th, im not saying that it shouldn't but there should be a war memorial that dosen't gloss over atrocities commited by America, yet celibrates the great things that America has done for the world.
Hopefully thats not to hard to read. (I tend to ramble)
Posted by Christian
"The IFC's proposal for ``Ground Zero'' is a magnificent display of American confidence, optimism and big-minded love of freedom and truth. It will be a shining, positive example for all nations(.)" I'm certain that the IFC would be proud to know their Talking Points are being repeated verbatim throughout the blogosphere.
Posted by Langtry
(1) Geography. Simply being where they were;
(2) Sacrificing 20 million of their own countrymen without batting an eye;
(3) The utter stupidity of the Germans preparing a summer offensive in the dead of winter. Say what you will about Hitler - he didn't learn a damn thing from Napoleon.
So the Russkies LIBERATED ALL OF EASTERN EUROPE? Why don't you try running that one by the Poles, the Czechs, the Lithuanians, the Bulgarians, et al, and come back and tell us how well the argument was received? I for one would like to hear about it!
Have a nice day...
Posted by Norm de Plume
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