Archive » Memorials

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“They might turn 9-11 into something sacred…”

Jonathan V. Last reports that the disastrous “Crescent of Embrace” in Shanksville, Pa., was the result not only of insipid political correctness–but of abject, soulless bureaucracy. Read the whole thing. Here’s the conclusion:
At some point in the next few years, the National Park Service will give us its version of the Flight 93 Memorial. It [...]

Remember the cross-shaped beams pulled from the wreckage at the World Trade Center on 9/11?

The symbol of faith and hope that inspired rescue workers and 9/11 families is being moved from the site.
The 20-foot-tall artifact was discovered in the smoking ruins two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and became a symbol for [...]

***scroll for updates…AZ Gov. Napolitano thinks the memorial is “great,” “honorable,” and “responsible…”

You have got to see the entire stomach-turning photo series of the Arizona 9/11 memorial disgrace over at Hot Air. Many thanks to Hot Air commenter AZ Patriot for taking the pics.
The blogswarm has been building over the moonbattered memorial, which was supposedly [...]

The above phrase in Arabic is “lan astaslem.” It means “I will not surrender/I will not submit.” (Thanks to Rusty, Laura, and Daveed for translation help.) This is the last line of my 9/11 column and it’s my 9/11 anniversary message to the convert-or-die jihadists.
And yes, I’ve got t-shirts in the works as a [...]

Debra Burlingame exposes the squandering of 9/11 memorial funds:
The American people, watching the horrific scenes in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, voiced nary a peep of dissent when the federal government handed over $21 billion in disaster relief–$18 billion in rebuilding bonds and tax credits, and $2.8 billion in immediate cash grants–to the state and [...]

Clinton W. Taylor reports that the Flight 93 Memorial controversy is not over:
There is this new design out for the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Its original version, called the “Crescent of Embrace,” met a barrage of flak in the blogosphere because of its unfortunate resemblance to an Islamic crescent, aligned toward Mecca. [...]

***updated 12/1 below***
The crescent is gone. AP reports:
Designers of a Flight 93 memorial have made a bowl-shaped piece of land its centerpiece, replacing a crescent-shape design that some critics had said was a symbol honoring terrorists, officials announced Wednesday.
The new design for the memorial, to be built on the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, [...]

Cox & Forkum say it all:

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Dimitri Vassilaros of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says “Kill the crescent.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer calls critics “blind.”
The Johnstown Tribune Democrat supports altering the memorial and cites the second-stage jury’s own words:
“Consider the interpretation and impact of words within the context of this event,” the jury wrote in its report. “The ‘Crescent’ should [...]

Despite reports of National Park Service faxes on the fritz and Interior Department e-mails bouncing, the objections of countless numbers of you to the proposed Flight 93 Memorial have been heard. And here, via AP, are the results to prove it:
WASHINGTON - The architect of the memorial to a plane downed in western Pennsylvania on [...]

My latest column, “Monumental surrender,” on the Flight 93 Memorial controversy, bubbling in the blogosphere for nearly a week, is up:
War memorials should memorialize war. If you want peace and understanding and healing and good will toward all, go build Kabbalah centers…
…A proper war memorial stirs to anger and action. We all remember passenger Todd [...]

Did you watch the Discovery Channel documentary last night on Flight 93?
Did you weep and curse and cheer?
And do you wonder how this memorial design–benignly passive at best, offensive and inexplicably clueless at worst–possibly passed muster as the best representation of the spirit, courage, and resilience of the 40 passengers who saved [...]

Credit: Zombie
Tons of you are stunned, outraged, and sickened by the new Flight 93 Memorial, the “Crescent of Embrace.” I called the architect responsible for the redesign, Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles, yesterday for comment. He did not return my call, but he did speak with the Johnstown, Pa., Tribune Democrat, as quoted in the [...]

***scroll down for updates***
The Flight 93 Memorial design, titled “The Crescent of Embrace,” was unveiled this week.
Take a close look:

Remind you of anything?
Tom Bevan at the indispensable Real Clear Politics gently raises some questions about the design.
Charles at Little Green Footballs asks: “Is this a coincidence, an example of amazing cluelessness, or something more deliberate?”
Zombie [...]

The fight to protect Ground Zero from the Blame America crowd continues today with a rally tomorrow in NYC beginning at 930am EDT. Go to Take Back the Memorial for more details, and the latest news on the 9/11 families efforts to stop construction of the “International Freedom Center” on hallowed ground.
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Take Back the Memorial: [...]

Michelle has written before about plans to turn the 9/11 memorial in New York City at Ground Zero into an International Freedom Center that would focus on threats to freedom throughout history and around to world instead of a tribute and memorial to those who died on 9/11. She blogged about it here and [...]

Good news to report in the battle over Ground Zero: one component of the Blame America building that was planned at the 9/11 memorial site in New York City will not be housed there. Via AP:
One museum planned as part of a cultural center at the World Trade Center site will not be moving there [...]

I couldn’t let this snark-itorial from the New York Times pass without note today. The paper attacks the 9/11 families who oppose turning Ground Zero into the Blame America monument, an issue covered closely on this blog since Debra Burlingame first spoke out about the plans in her whistleblowing Wall Street Journal op-ed last month. [...]

The battle continues.

The battle over Ground Zero continues. Bloomberg.com reports that the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is looking for alternative sites for the International Freedom Center and Drawing Center:
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, acknowledging protests by relatives of Sept. 11 victims, is taking “one last look” at alternatives to placing a “museum of freedom” [...]

John Derbyshire imagines the consequences…
Scott Johnson at Power Line has more.
Take Back the Memorial responds to Tom Bernstein.
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Previous:
Take Back the Memorial: D.C. rally
Take Back the Memorial: Heat’s on
Take back the memorial: rallying on
Take back the memorial: more voices raised
Battle at Ground Zero: The IFC responds
Take back the memorial
No guilt complex at Ground Zero
The Soros-ization of [...]

9/11 families who oppose the Blame America monument planned at Ground Zero will be in Washington, D.C., today for a noon press conference and walking tour of national memorials.
Check out all the latest at Take Back the Memorial.

The battle over Ground Zero continues, and the public relations master for the Blame America side is losing his cool.
- Check out this must-see segment from the O’Reilly Factor Tuesday night in which Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade describes an off-air confrontation between 9/11 family member Debra Burlingame–who blew the whistle on the plans [...]

The battle over Ground Zero continues. Today, at 12 noon EST, there will be a rally and press conference in NYC to “Take Back the Memorial.
More comments from 9/11 families here.
Thoughts from Jeff Jarvis on the left, LGF on the right. Cox & Forkum weigh in further.
Good on the rally organizers for pressing on!
Why isn’t [...]

The New York Times remains silent, but the New York Post weighs in:
America has done more to advance the cause of freedom than any other nation on earth. And nothing less than an unambiguous celebration of American values will be appropriate for this memorial.
The New York Post intends to follow this debate closely, and we [...]

Dick Tofel, president of the International Freedom Center, has a smooth piece in the WSJ today attempting to counter Debra Burlingame’s devastating op-ed on the hijacking of Ground Zero. He fails. At least he abandoned the tactic he used with me of trying to minimize the amount of opposition in this country to the blame-America [...]

Robert at Lime Shurbet has set up a new “Take Back the Memorial” website with handy contact links to keep pressure on local and federal officials over the battle for Ground Zero.
Meanwhile, Roger L. Simon has a proposal for Soros and Company.
And check out the post–and especially the interesting comments–on the memorial fight at Mudville [...]

My new column is here, picking up on Debra Burlingame’s WSJ op-ed yesterday regarding the America-bashing ACLU/human rights cabal’s plans to turn the 9/11 memorial in NYC into the world’s largest Blame America monument. Excerpt:
Do we really want Ground Zero to be the playground of anti-war financiers, moral equivalence peddlers, and Guantanamo Bay alarmists? As [...]

Must-read. Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has blown the whistle on George Soros and other human rights zealots who are trying to turn Ground Zero into a blame-America monument. Her piece is up at the [...]