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:
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:
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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.)
15 comments:
Excellent post. I'm saddened to see that 9-11 opportunism spans the political spectrum.
Posted by Bojack
Wow. I'm almost speechless. But how can the MSM miss this? I didn't even see it on Drudge but I sent him a link so we'll see.
How quickly they forget 9/11, the biggest attack on American soil.
Posted by Chris K
The International Freedom Center is a beacon of America's long, deep commitment to freedom, truth and human rights. Americans and people around the world respect and admire organizations like the IFC as audacious demonstrations of the strength of America's character and political maturity.
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
This whole need for moral equivilency, a charming byproduct of Western humanity, is getting to be re-gd-diculous. Ditto on the "we hate you daddy now give us money world relationship with America." Check out the Herald Tribune's reprint of the Times editorial today. A Mr. John McNeel opines that we should not be lecturing the Arab Middle East, just giving them more money to create viable business programs(which I guess he guesses they cannot do for themselves), and then they will not hate us so much. Granted the ad campaign he is criticizing is just as backassward.
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
TokyoBK: better check your investments again. It's the world that's lending money to the U.S., not vice versa.
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
I hate to trot out racial lineage as a credential, but to answer your statement about revenge fetishes I can only say that I have ansectors and relatives in all of the categories mentioned in the case for the "Freedom Center," Native, African and Jewish, and it offends me to think that we would be honoring any of them or anyone or anything other than the victims of that awful day 9/11. Re the Middle East, revenge is somewhat appropriate, but reordering the world was very appropriate and remains crucial.
Posted by tokyobk
That memorial will point out what the United States has done to people overseas for the "crazy MF's" to fly an airplane into a tall building. Maybe if the US didn't fuck with the internal problems of sovereign nations, then there would two more tall buildings in New York then there is today.
Posted by Christian
TokyoBK writes: ``Re the Middle East, revenge is somewhat appropriate.''
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
Well, Christain, I suppose Hitler was once just an "internal problem of a Sovreign nation" as well too. And when he, and Imperial Japan, began to export their problems, America was forced to redraw the world map. And if you mean that America, in concept and action, stands entirely in opposition to the current Islamic and other forms of facism, then America is guilty as charged, and was indeed attacked for that reason. None of this babble about Zionism and Imperialism. Never before has a power so strong used that power so judiciously and for the benefit of so many, Muslims included. Even now, as you admit, we are trying to figure out a way to be balanced to the whole world. I know you won't thank us fo it, but you're welcome.
Posted by tokyobk
Wow, bunkerbuster is running his own blog in the comments section. Wild.
Posted by Dave
Dave: should I change my nickname to Pavlov's Dog?
Posted by bunkerbuster
bunkerbuster:
"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
This would be like Japan building a memorial at Hiroshima and only having a portion of it (underground and out of view, of course) actually honoring the victims. The remaining portion could be used, for example, to show that Japan colonised Korea in 1910 and invaded and occupied China on a broad scale from 1931, committing atrocities, which included the massacre of an estimated 200,000 people in Nanjing, China, in 1937.
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
While I agree that the memorial should be about the WTC and nothing else, I think that you have to keep an open mind and look at the broad picture. Tokyo makes a good point in that the internal struggles of Nazi Germany were left unchecked and let hitlar build an army and take over europe. He also says that never have the united states used an army so large to do good for every race in the world. This is all true, however, I would like to say that It wasn't JUST the United States liberating europe in WWII. The United States liberated france and helped with North Africa. Russia had a huge role in WWII in liberating ALL OF EASTERN EUROPE. The English and the Canadians Liberated Holland and Scandanavia. All im tring to say here is that WWII was won by a united allied force and not just any one country. There is a difference from invading Nazi Germany and removing a brutal dictator that was a threat to the world as we know it (and personaly I think that even if germany had one the war, Hitlars empire would'nt last long anyway) and covertly invading Chile to overthrow its demorcraticly elected government and install a brutal, facist dictator. Things like that are why there is so much hate for america today. America is the only superpower in the world, and because of that there is naturally a lot of resentment towards them. If England or France was a superpower then they would be the in a simmilar situation. All im saying is that its human nature to want to do the best for your self and your country, and by being the only superpower, you have teh means to do so. The presidents of the untied states just did what they thought was right and there is naturally going to be an opposing view. Because of this there will always be terrorism.
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
While Russia's role in WWII cannot be minimized, you must remember, there are but 3 reasons for their success in the matter:
(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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