Take Back the Memorial

[Annie]

It needs its own thread, needless to say, lotsa links:

http://www.takebackthememorial.org/

“We need your help again. We need some heros.”
June 10th, 2005

That was the plea from Debra Burlingame this morning on Fox &Friends.

This is why.

On Memorial Day weekend, three Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit who had been wounded in Iraq were joined by 300 other service members for a wreath-laying ceremony at the empty pit of Ground Zero. The broken pieces of the Twin Towers have long ago been cleared away. There are no faded flags or hand-painted signs of national unity, no simple tokens of remembrance. So why do they come? What do they hope to see?

READ MORE »

WOW
June 10th, 2005

What a tremendous response!! Our inbox is full and our hearts are warmed by each and every email.

Due to the sheer volume of email we are receiving, we cannot respond to all of them personally. But rest assured, they are ALL being read and your continued support is welcome and appreciated.

If you don’t know, forces in this country are trying to turn ground zero into a platform for their ideaology. For more informaton, read our original post.

You can help in several ways:

1. Use the contact information on the right side-bar if you have not already done so and contact those that can make a difference. It is important that our elected officials and those directly responsible for the planning and design of the International Freedom Center hear your voice.

2. Send a link to all your friends and family back to takebackthememorial.org and make them aware of the plans to turn part of ground zero into a “Blame America” monument.

3. If you have a web site or web log (blog), display the Take Back The Memorial graphic on the right side-bar with a link back to takebackthememorial.org so your visitors will know what is being planned and they can have an opportunity to voice their opinion as well.

We are not ready to accept donations at this time.

Note that Debra Burlingame will appear on Your World with Neal Cavuto on the Fox News channel this afternoon at 4pm Eastern if you missed her on Fox & Friends.

KEEP UP THE PRESSURE! WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Welcome to Take Back The Memorial
June 10th, 2005

“Ground Zero has been stolen, right from under our noses. How do we get it back?”

That is the question Debra Burlingame asked on June 7, 2005. Ms. Burlingame is a member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board of directors and the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

She asked that question because there are powerful forces in this country that believe Ground Zero should be the forum for their political ideology. They want to take part of that hallowed ground and dedicate it to a “narrative of hope,” part of the International Freedom Center (IFC). Richard Tofel, President of the IFC describes it this way:

Then there will be the Memorial Center, a museum devoted to the events of September 11 itself, with exhibit space roughly equal in size to that at the International Freedom Center. The Memorial Center will tell the stories of the day–of heroism and sacrifice, of rescue and service, of courage and resolution, of memory and loss. It is the Memorial Center that will contain the iconic artifacts of September 11.

That is necessary, but not sufficient.

As envisioned in Daniel Libeskind’s master plan for the site’s redevelopment, the International Freedom Center’s building will serve as a buffer between the sacred Memorial and the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city, including the thousands of people who will move each day in and out of Santiago Calatrava’s spectacular new transit hub.

But the International Freedom Center itself will do much more than that. It will serve as a complement to the Memorial, bringing a universal “narrative of hope” to a place where hope is imperative.

While the IFC’s proposal is draped in flowery language, it does not address some basic questions:

* Why is a memorial alone not sufficient?
* How would a “narrative of hope” be told?
* Why should visitors be greeted with a “we must understand how we brought this on ourselves” exhibit?

Ms. Burlingame has a different view than Richard Tofel, as expressed in her piece in the Wall Street Journal, The Great Ground Zero Heist.

The World Trade Center Memorial will break ground this year. When those Marines return in 2010, the year it is scheduled to open, no doubt they will expect to see the artifacts that bring those memories to life. They’ll want a vantage point that allows them to take in the sheer scope of the destruction, to see the footage and the photographs and hear the personal stories of unbearable heartbreak and unimaginable courage. They will want the memorial to take them back to who they were on that brutal September morning.

Instead, they will get a memorial that stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the yearning to return to that day. Rather than a respectful tribute to our individual and collective loss, they will get a slanted history lesson, a didactic lecture on the meaning of liberty in a post-9/11 world. They will be served up a heaping foreign policy discussion over the greater meaning of Abu Ghraib and what it portends for the country and the rest of the world.”

Ms. Burlingame continues.

The so-called lessons of September 11 should not be force-fed by ideologues hoping to use the memorial site as nothing more than a powerful visual aid to promote their agenda. Instead of exhibits and symposiums about Internationalism and Global Policy we should hear the story of the courageous young firefighter whose body, cut in half, was found with his legs entwined around the body of a woman. Recovery personnel concluded that because of their positions, the young firefighter was carrying her.

9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America (of which Ms. Burlingame is a co-founder) has this to say:

So tell me, at Ground Zero, should we carve in cement and bury in an underground 50,000 square foot museum the names of the nearly 3,000 people that Islamic terrorists murdered that day? Should visitors to the World Trade Center’s memorial be left to wonder what happened that day and where the artifacts of 9/11 are? Above ground, should we build a park with reflecting pools, a cultural center, and a 300,000 square foot International Freedom Center where visitors can hear lectures and discussions on why they all hated us, what we did to bring 9/11 upon ourselves, and the correct world-view future generations must choose so they won’t hate us and attack us anymore? Why not also discuss all of man’s inhumanities to man, especially those by Americans on Americans and all the other people in the world, since time immortal while we are at it in order to promote our own political agenda? Does this all sound like a good idea to you?

It doesn’t to us. And it doesn’t to the mother of one of our brave soldiers fighting for our freedom in Iraq.

To be clear, we are true supporters of all the concepts of freedom and herald its great history — and mourn its tragic failings. However, the fight of the Czech Republic and such other struggles for democratic rule have no place at such a site. “Ground Zero” truly is hallowed ground to us and most Americans — as sacred as any national cemetery or battle site — and we would no more support this grand scheme were it proposed for Arlington National Cemetery or the Gettysburg Battlefield.

We remain committed to the idea that the entire site of the attack of September 11, 2001 be reserved entirely as a memorial committed to the victims of that attack, the American people and the men and women who have given their lives in this War on Terrorism.

So who are these people trying to use this hallowed ground to push their political agendas? It is a virtual “who’s who” of “blame America first” ideologues.

Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the world-wide “Stop Torture Now” campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld’s refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is “irresponsible and dishonorable.”

Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.

Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, “I’m not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House.” This is the same man who participated in a “teach-in” at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, “The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military,” and called for “a million Mogadishus.” The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner’s statement warning that future discussions should not be “overwhelmed” by the IFC’s location at the World Trade Center site itself.

George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib “hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself.”

Do your part. Do not let the memory of those who died on that day fall victim to those that would excuse their murderers. Political points of view have no place on the hallowed ground where so many innocent people were brutally murdered.

Use the resources on the right side-bar to call or write to make your voice heard. Help us take back the memorial and make it a fitting tribute to the nearly 3000 people that died on that terrible September day.

 

[Avatar4321]

I am amazed at the left and there insistance that 911 was our fault instead of the guys who flew frickin planes into building. What the heck is with these self hating people?

 

[Annie]

I am amazed at the left and there insistance that 911 was our fault instead of the guys who flew frickin planes into building. What the heck is with these self hating people?

I think they see it as a permanent reminder of how bad the conservatives are?

 

[Annie]

If discussing with friends/family. They must be getting nervous, but those that care are NOT backing down:

http://takebackthememorial.org/?p=15

TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL RESPONDS TO THE IFC

FROM THE IFC WEB SITE: IFC Myths and Facts

The IFC says…
Myth:
The International Freedom Center (IFC) will have more space than the World Trade Center Memorial Center.

Fact:
Each will have roughly the same square footage of exhibit space. The Memorial Center will house all of the key 9/11 artifacts. And both it and the IFC will be dwarfed-as they should be-by the World Trade Center Memorial, with its “Reflecting Absence” pools, where the names of the honored dead will be inscribed.

Truth: The plan for the IFC’s building calls for 300,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space. The plan for exhibit space in the underground Memorial Center is 50,000 sq. ft. Yes, there will be giant pools of water underground, just like you’d see in any fancy hotel lobby, but you can’t “exhibit” crushed fire trucks in them, you can’t see footage of mass destruction in them, they will not “exhibit” anything at all.

The IFC says…
Myth:
The IFC is inconsistent with what 9/11 families want to see at the World Trade Center Memorial.

Fact:
The Mission Statement for the Memorial, which was crafted in 2003 and was the product of very substantial input from many family members, calls on us, through the Memorial, to “strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance, and intolerance.” That is what the IFC is about. A clear majority of family members on the WTC Memorial Foundation Board support the IFC and this Mission Statement.

Truth: The WTC Memorial mission statement appears in full on the TakeBacktheMemorial home page. IFC cherry-picked from this quote, “May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance.” See anything in there about “Freedom’s Failures?”.

Truth: Three family members on the WTC Memorial Foundation Board are adamantly opposed to the IFC at the Memorial site. Here are the remaining four:

* a board member of the LMDC, which voted to bring the IFC onto the Memorial site and to give it $300 million federal dollars
* a personal family friend of the LMDC chairman; the only family member selected to be a Memorial design juror and who is now a Vice Chair, board member and salaried employee of the IFC
* a Vice President of Gilbane Building Co, which was awarded a $45 million contract at Ground Zero by the LMDC
* a former aide to Gov. George Pataki who now works for the LMDC


The IFC says…
Myth:
The IFC and its building are somehow a late entry on the site.

Fact:
Daniel Libeskind’s site master plan, announced more than two years ago, called for a museum where the IFC building will be built. The selection of the master plan was in part the product of the “Listening to the City” process that included thousands of people, and hundreds of family members. The IFC itself was publicly designated for the site in June 2004.

Truth: Because federal (HUD) money was being used for redevelopment of Lower Manhattan and the WTC Memorial Site, the LMDC was statutorily required to establish a public comment period. HUD officials recently acknowledged that soliciting public opinion did not in any way require the LMDC to either respond to these comments or conform to the public’s desires. 9/11 families were stonewalled, ignored and misled. The 2004 roll-out of the IFC was deliberately vague. Only last month did it become clear the “museum” Libeskind imagined would contain nothing about the events of September 11, 2001.

The IFC says…
Myth:
The IFC leans left.

Fact:
The IFC is entirely non-partisan and outside of politics. It has enlisted nearly 100 advisers for its museum and service programs. These are bi-partisan. They do include people from leading human rights organizations. But also three former top White House officials from the George W. Bush Administration, as well as a former top aide to Senator Bob Dole and the director of the conservative Hoover Institution. Isn’t that kind of balance what America is about?

Truth: Take Back the Memorial doesn’t support the use of the 9/11 attacks to push ideology from the Left or the Right. We don’t want “balanced” politics, we want no politics! The question is, when it comes to content and programming, who will the IFC organizers listen to? See, The Great Ground Zero Heist, for a clue.

The IFC says…
Myth:
The IFC will celebrate America’s failures.

Fact:
The IFC’s highest aims are to inspire people, and engage them in service. It will tell the stories of Naziism-but also of the Greatest Generation that defeated it; of the Soviet gulag-but also of the courageous dissidents who helped bring it down; of Jim Crow segregation-but also Martin Luther King, who helped stamp it out. Inspiring people through these stories to do freedom’s work today is our best long-run defense against more 9/11’s.

Truth: We’re stunned to admit, we agree! Put the IFC museum in Saudi Arabia, Syria or Egypt. At Ground Zero, if we want an atrocity that teaches and inspires, make the World Trade Center Memorial about September 11th.

The IFC says…
Myth:
The IFC will excuse or rationalize the 9/11 attacks, either in exhibits or in evening discussion programs.

Fact:
No it won’t. The attacks were inexcusable, barbaric, and cannot be defended. Period.

Truth: “To be sure, the International Freedom Center will host debates and note points of view with which you–and I–will disagree.” Richard Tofel, IFC Pres./COO, from A Fitting Place at Ground Zero, Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2005. See, The Great Ground Zero Heist for a preview of the IFC speaker line-up.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 14th, 2005 at 8:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 

[Annie]

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=16290_Take_Back_the_Memorial_Rally_Tomorrow&only

There will be a very important press conference and rally tomorrow at 12 noon, at the corner of Church & Liberty in Manhattan: “TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL” RALLY.

Dear Families, Friends and Supporters:

For three long years we have played by the rules as set forth by Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. It got us nowhere.

We want a proper, fitting and respectful September 11th Memorial for the 3,000 innocent souls who perished that day. Not “a history lesson about tolerance.”

The planners of the World Trade Center Memorial have been put on notice that we are going over their heads to make our case to the American people. Please join us for a press conference to kick off our national campaign to enlist the American people in a Fight for Ground Zero. Our loved ones deserve no less.

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE & RALLY

WHEN: 12:00 Noon, Monday, June 20, 2005 (Please arrive at 11:45 am)

WHERE: Ground Zero at the Corner of Church & Liberty (rain or shine)

REMEMBRANCE: Please wear black or yellow to symbolize unity, or wear clothing that symbolizes your loved one’s affiliation and bring a picture of your lost loved one to hold over your heart.

ORGANIZERS:

Advocates for 9/11 Fallen Heroes
www.911fallenheroes.org

Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund
www.cantorrelief.org

Coalition of 9/11 Families
www.coalitionof911families.org

Fix the Fund
www.fixthefund.org

September 11th Families Association
http://www.911wvfa.org

September’s Mission
www.septembersmission.org

Skyscraper Safety Campaign
www.skyscrapersafety.org

Take Back the Memorial
www.takebackthememorial.org

Voices of September 11th
www.voicesofsept11.org

W. Doyle Support Group
[email protected]

WTC Families for Proper Burial
www.wtcfamiliesforproperburial.com

WTC Family Center
www.wtcfamilycenter.org

World Trade Center United Family Group
www.wtcufg.org

PLEASE ATTEND! MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD!! HELP US TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL!

Wish I could be there.

 

[Merlin1047]

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=16290_Take_Back_the_Memorial_Rally_Tomorrow&only

Signed the petition. Sent this to Mayor Bloomberg:

Hon. Michael Bloomberg
Mayor, NYC


Sir,

I am writing in regard to the Sep 11 Memorial proposed by the International Freedom Center. I am concerned that this organization will turn the memorial into simply another "blame America first" travesty.

Although I live in southeast Alabama, I was a New Yorker on Sep 11. As a veteran of 25 years military service, I shared the pain of the loss of so many brave police and firefighters. As an American, I am deeply concerned that any memorial constructed on Ground Zero be a fitting tribute to the men and women who lost their lives that day.

Whatever fitting memorial is finally erected, we must not allow a collection of dilettantes to hijack the true spirit of that memorial and turn it into a tawdry, cheap and disrespectful travesty. We owe those who died no less than a memorial which respects and cherishes their memory.

 

[Annie]

Signed the petition. Sent this to Mayor Bloomberg:

Hon. Michael Bloomberg
Mayor, NYC


Sir,

I am writing in regard to the Sep 11 Memorial proposed by the International Freedom Center. I am concerned that this organization will turn the memorial into simply another "blame America first" travesty.

Although I live in southeast Alabama, I was a New Yorker on Sep 11. As a veteran of 25 years military service, I shared the pain of the loss of so many brave police and firefighters. As an American, I am deeply concerned that any memorial constructed on Ground Zero be a fitting tribute to the men and women who lost their lives that day.

Whatever fitting memorial is finally erected, we must not allow a collection of dilettantes to hijack the true spirit of that memorial and turn it into a tawdry, cheap and disrespectful travesty. We owe those who died no less than a memorial which respects and cherishes their memory.

Not that Bloomberg seems up to the task but your letter,

 

[nosarcasm]

I saw some of the families of the 9/11 victims on tv putting pressure
on the pc political elite.

I think only the victims of 9/11 in the towers, on the other planes
and the pentagon should be remembered there.

I could see the the list of fallen members of the armed forces
in the war on terrror have their memorial there too.

Slavery, the black rights movement and others should have
a memorial at another place not there.

 

[Annie]

I hope the President does better than this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anthony Gardner 973-216-2623

Major September 11 Family Organizations Challenge America and Its Leaders to Keep the Promise to Never Forget 9/11

July 11, 2005 New York, N.Y. – At a press conference today on the steps of City Hall, family members of relatives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 representing fourteen major September 11 organizations challenged the International Freedom Center’s latest ploy to hijack the memorial at ground zero and called on America and its leaders to act now to ‘Take Back the Memorial.’

The event was opened with a moment of silence in memory of the victims and survivors of last week’s bombing of London transport. The family organizations, which represent civilians, firefighters, police and emergency personnel, restated their objections to a massive cultural complex intended to house institutions that have no relevance to September 11, 2001 that infringes on and will overshadow the memorial.

“Freedom is an ideology,” said Charles Wolf whose wife Katherine was murdered in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. “Ideologies change over time. Memorials are meant to be perpetual and eternal – they’re meant to go beyond a period in time.”

“We must not make a mockery of the words ‘Never Forget,’” said Debra Burlingame who lost her brother Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. “We think the public will not be fooled by the IFC’s new plan to appropriate 9/11 artifacts. It’s the height of arrogance and insensitivity to use these precious objects as mere window dressing or statuary.”

Calling on President Bush to intervene, Jack Lynch whose son, Michael F. Lynch died rescuing others in the South Tower on September 11, 2001 remarked, “Mr. President, one of your staff last week stated in response to a reporter’s question that the memorial is a ‘New York issue.’ Nothing could be further from the truth; this is an American problem as it was America that was attacked. Saying that the memorial at Ground Zero is a New York problem would be like calling Gettysburg a Pennsylvania problem or Pearl Harbor an Hawaii issue. We expect better of you.”

The 14 major family organizations called on President Bush and Congress to come to their aid and honor their promises to ‘Never Forget.’ They asked all American citizens to log on to www.takebackthememorial.org, sign the petition and call their elected officials and ask them to make the WTC memorial reflect only the history and events of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001. They also called on the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Boards who both meet later this week to exercise their fiduciary obligation to protect this memorial.

 

[dilloduck]

I hope the President does better than this:

I agree with the sentiment but wouldn't it be a bit heavy handed for the federal govt to step in the middle of this?

 

[archangel]

I agree with the sentiment but wouldn't it be a bit heavy handed for the federal govt to step in the middle of this?

as if this would do any good...he did not even step in to help Judge Roy Moore on the 10 commandments issue!

 

[Annie]

Personally, think he should express his opinion, not attempt to pass a law forcing it.

 

[dilloduck]

Personally, think he should express his opinion, not attempt to pass a law forcing it.

Do you think some would construe expressing an opinion interference and criticize him for it?

 

[freeandfun1]

Do you think some would construe expressing an opinion interference and criticize him for it?

Of course. And they will criticize him if he says nothing, they will criticize him if he supports them, they will critcize him no matter what. So, if he is going to be criticized, it is better he be criticized for something honorable than not.

 

[Gabriella84]

The worst thing about memorials in the modern era is that they tend to become political battlegrounds and lightning rods for opposing viewpoints.
I am among the (very small) minority that views the WTC site as hollowed ground. I don't believe ANY structure should be built on it. It should be a park with a memorial. Similar to the Viet Nam veterans wall.
I went to Oklahoma City once and was struck by the moving simplicity of the Federal Building memorial. They had a chair dedicated to each victim, which lighted up at night. Each chair had the persons name and age at death.
Even a smaller, scale model of the Twin Towers would be more appropriate as a memorial.

As a related side note, I went to NYC in July of 2002. Like most people, I wanted to pay my respects to those who had died. Unfortunately, you couldn't even get close to Ground Zero. It was full of hawkers, trying to peddle T-shirts, pictures and even items they claimed to have taken from the site after the bombings. There were some who were upset, but the police protected the hawkers, saying they "had a right to do business." Yes, the City of New York had sold them permits.
I thought the ultimate indignity was the tourists who wanted to have their smiling faces pictured in front of the hole in the ground. Even a diehard lib like myself has more self respect than that.

 

[Annie]

No one is saying that the International Freedom Center/Drawing Center cannot find another site to open up-with Soros $$$.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/opinion/29fri3.html?

Editorial
A Sense of Proportion at Ground Zero

Published: July 29, 2005

Somewhere in the ill-conceived campaign to "take back the memorial" at ground zero, false impressions have managed to triumph over facts. This week, Debra Burlingame, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and others called for a boycott of fund-raising for the memorial until the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center have been banished from ground zero. She argues that money for the memorial will be intermingled with funds for the cultural building that is supposed to house the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center. This is both misleading and harmful to the memorial itself. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has pledged that its first priority is to build the memorial and create an endowment for it. Private donors are free to specify how they choose to have their money spent.
Skip to next paragraph
Readers
Forum: Today's Editorials

The attacks on the International Freedom Center - and, more broadly, on the cultural component of Daniel Libeskind's master plan - make it all too easy to forget the existence of a Memorial Museum that is devoted wholly to the events of 9/11. Opponents of the Freedom Center, like Ms. Burlingame, claim that the Memorial Museum will be dwarfed by the cultural center. In fact, they overstate the size of the Snohetta building, which is being scaled back for other reasons, and they have exaggerated the floor space allotted there for the International Freedom Center. They also make it sound as if the Memorial Museum, which at 50,000 square feet is larger than the public spaces in the Whitney Museum, is somehow an afterthought relegated to the basement. It will be built underground, but that is because the 9/11 families asked to have access to the bedrock and to what remains of the foundation of the twin towers. To argue over the size of these two spaces is to assume that emotional power is solely the result of square footage. It is also to forget the profound effect that going to the roots of the World Trade Center will have on most visitors.

But this is not really a campaign about money or space. It is a campaign about political purity - about how people remember 9/11 and about how we choose to read its aftermath, including the Iraq war. On their Web site, www.takebackthememorial.org, critics of the cultural plan at ground zero offer a resolution called Campaign America. It says that ground zero must contain no facilities "that house controversial debate, dialogue, artistic impressions, or exhibits referring to extraneous historical events." This, to us, sounds un-American.

 

[Annie]

Lots and lots of links:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003232.htm

TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL: PARTIAL VICTORY
By Michelle Malkin · August 12, 2005 10:37 AM

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 and another devoted to freedom will only do so if it satisfies redevelopment officials, the head of the agency charged with rebuilding the site said Thursday.

In an apparent concession to some Sept. 11 victims' relatives who said that the World Trade Center Cultural Center could disrespect the dead and America, John Whitehead gave the International Freedom Center until Sept. 23 to work with family members and produce specific plans for its museum. If the plans do not satisfy the LMDC, he said, "we will find another use or tenant consistent with our objectives for that space."

The New York Post editorializes today: Send 'em packing. The next step is for oblivious memorial planners to scrap the guilt complex known as the International Freedom Center (IFC). Excerpt:

The Drawing Center is to be applauded for its integrity. And honesty.

It seems "prudent . . . to look at alternatives, if in fact the Ground Zero site is not going to work out," said center spokesman Fraser Seitel. "The Drawing Center," he added, "like any cultural institution, stands for artistic freedom."

By contrast, prudence and integrity are hardly terms that fairly describe the IFC's record. Indeed, that facility (the brainchild of folks like Tom Bernstein, whose Human Rights First is suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally for prisoner "abuses" in the War on Terror) has taken quite a different tack.

Unlike the Drawing Center, the IFC has disingenuously, stubbornly refused to admit that it can't guarantee that it won't "denigrate America," give the nation's enemies a platform or open its doors to base, tasteless material.

Instead, the center has responded to Gov. Pataki's demand for such assurances — impossible demands, to be sure — by pretending it can work things out.

But let no one be fooled: It knows very well that it can't, and won't, provide those assurances. Not in good faith, anyway...

It has been an uphill battle for Debra Burlingame, who first blew the whistle on these plans, and the thousands of Americans who raised their voices in opposition to the desecration and politicization of Ground Zero. We owe them thanks, continued support, and defense against the likes of the New York Times, which had the gall to question their patriotism. The job of protecting the integrity of the 9/11 memorial is not over.

Take Back the Memorial has all the latest, plus details on a Sept. 10 rally in NYC.


***
Previous:

Schooling the N.Y. Times
Who are they calling un-American?
Take back the memorial: update
Take back the memorial: They're feeling the heat
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 Ground Zero

 

[NATO AIR]

These fucking jag-offs really hate America, I mean there is just no excuse for this kind of behavior. I'm surprised they're not claiming we committed horrific war crimes against the British during the Revolutionary War and that George Washington and other founding fathers are terrorists and war criminals.

They're just taking all the victim's legacies and pissing on them.

 

[Annie]

These fucking jag-offs really hate America, I mean there is just no excuse for this kind of behavior. I'm surprised they're not claiming we committed horrific war crimes against the British during the Revolutionary War and that George Washington and other founding fathers are terrorists and war criminals.

They're just taking all the victim's legacies and pissing on them.

Yep, it's been going on for awhile now. Somehow, in spite of everything, I hope that the families win. Soros can spend his money somewhere else.

 

[Annie]

http://nycpba.org/press-nyp/nyp-050922-freedom.html

New York Post
POLICE UNION WANTS FREEDOM CENTER BUSTED

By TOM TOPOUSIS in N.Y. and IAN BISHOP in D.C.
Patrick Lynch
PBA President Patrick Lynch

See also today's editorial

Police-union leaders have joined the battle to scuttle plans for the controversial International Freedom Center at Ground Zero — a site they say should be treated with the same reverence as Pearl Harbor.

"The World Trade Center is not a place for domestic or international politics," Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch wrote in a letter sent yesterday to World Trade Center Memorial Foundation Director Gretchen Dykstra.

"It is not a place for inappropriate art or entertainment and programming which trivializes or ignores the history of the site," Lynch's letter continued.

The PBA joins the city's firefighters union in opposing the center.

Relatives of 9/11 victims have blasted plans to put the center on the same site as a memorial to the 2,974 people who died, over fears it could include anti-American exhibits.

Lynch said any use of the site should be focused only on 9/11 and the lives that were lost at the World Trade Center. Among those killed were 23 city cops and 343 firefighters.

"We have active and retired members who participated in the largest rescue in this nation's history, and they want that site respected for what it is," Lynch told The Post.

"This is a call for the people of the City of New York who lived through that tragedy . . . to stand up and say no."

Meanwhile, three New York Republican congressmen opposed to the IFC are giving the project's backers until tomorrow to scrap the plan, or they'll be hauled before Congress.

"We've decided it's time for us to take a stand," said Saratoga-based Rep. John Sweeney, who joined Reps. Peter King (L.I.) and Vito Fossella (S.I.) in throwing down the gauntlet.

Still, the Freedom Center appears to be planning to try to remain at Ground Zero, it was reported today.

The center's officials had been told by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to come up with a satisfactory report by tomorrow, or risk losing the site.

The center's chairman, Tom Bernstein, told The New York Times, "You could not put it someplace else."

The IFC's report says the center will name five new board members, including former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, the paper said.

But there was no indication it will include a pledge to ban anti-American exhibits and programs unrelated to the terror attacks.