July 29, 2007
9/11 Families Consider (Threaten?) To Hold Own Ceremony
Unhappy that this year's September 11 anniversary events will be moved from Ground Zero to Zuccotti Park, some families of September 11 victims are demanding that the events be moved back or else they'll hold their own ceremony at Ground Zero. The AP reports that a group of eleven September 11 family groups sent a letter to Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg, saying, "As America watches the memorial service on Sept. 11, 2007, we are sure that they will agree that this event should take place at the real and sacred location."
Officials had moved the ceremony because of construction work. However, the families question whether the 0.75-acre Zuccotti Park will fit all the mourners and suggest that the ceremony could take place on a smaller part of the WTC site, including a construction ramp and haul road. If officials do not respond by Tuesday, "groups say they will apply for a permit to hold their own ceremony at ground zero." Interesting move - it seems unlikely that the city would issue a permit for on a construction site, even on a day when there's no construction activity. We wonder if there will eventually be a compromise to allow mourners to walk down the ramp to leave flowers, but not walk much further than that.
Dennis McKeon, who leads the group Where to Turn, Put it Above Ground, which is fighting for an aboveground memorial, told the AP, "We really want to work with the mayor's office. We really don't want to do a separate ceremony, but we will if we have to."
This year, first responders will be reading the names of victims (in previous years, siblings, children, and spouses/significant others have read the names).
Photograph of Zuccotti Park and its Joie de Vivre sculpture by wallyg on Flickr
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i am so over these families and their attempts to weild political clout - how is there suffering any greater than those of people who've lostloved ones in car accidents, plane crashes or due to illnesses?
because they love to hold the crosses and throw themselves on the coffins. I am pretty sure they've been pigeonholed into this role by the media canonizing the victims after 9/11 and now they have to live the lifestyle.
I'm just puzzled, because I was raised as a christian (for all the good it did me), and as far as I can recall, one was supposed to be more concerned with the spirit than the body. The body and soul are united in life, but not in death. So to be so attached to remains and the site of death seems to contradict everything I've been led to believe religious people are supposed to believe in. At least religious people partaking in the main monotheistic religions. Which is most of us. If there were some Ancient Egyptians amongst us, I could understand. They should be able to detach themselves from the material points of reference by now.
People will keep shouting because they have no shame, peace and belief in almighty G-d. You are supposed to seek peace with the deaths of your relatives in any tragedy even though you may never find it. This disgusting behavior by these few 9/11 families is ungodly and horrifying. Maybe they should not be given any more press, since it's only making them sin.
i have become increasingly unsympathetic to these families, it has been over half a decade already, they are all millionaires over the incident, what else do they want?! people die, its part of life, don't hold the rest of us hostage. I don't demand to close the hospital my father died in to memorialize the incident... enough is enough!!!!
9/11 "families" - GET OVER IT!!!
i don't give a damn how much the media, politicians, pundits, developers, your ancetors, etc., etc. made you what you are.. just get the F over it and leave NY alone!
I've given up caring about this. they got their millions and still they're bitching.
For once, can the media just not cover this for one year?
sh*t, if I knew this was going to happen, I would of went down to WTC that morning myself and left my family with millions.
Ceremony in the footprint = massive construction site clean-up = thousands of dollars = at least three days of delay on the construction of the Freedom Tower.
I bet these families are the same ones that complain when construction takes so long on their badly designed memorial! If only they could figure out that their selfish needs affect the whole city.
I agree with every post above this. I've never understood the "don't do anything there because that's where my family member's ashes are" argument. There is nothing left of your family member on the site. Stop treating it as such.
"As America watches the memorial service on Sept. 11, 2007, we are sure that they will agree that this event should take place at the real and sacred location." Sorry, professional grievers, America IS NOT watching the memorial service. America is watching Big Brother, Hell's Kitchen, and Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? not the 9/11 memorial. Get over yourselves, everybody dies, some in much more horrifying ways than others, but death eventually catches us all. Live your lives as best you can and try your hardest to do right by others but don't expect others to put their lives on hold because you can't accept your loss. Also, sacred location? Are you shitting me? The following is from the Wikipedia entry on the WTC, hardly "sacred":
"Although the towers became an undeniable icon of New York City, they were not without flaws and were handicapped in many ways. Initially conceived, (as the name suggests) as a complex dedicated to companies and organizations directly taking part in "world trade," they at first failed to attract the expected clientele. During the early years, various governmental organizations became key tenants of the World Trade Center, including the State of New York. It was not until the 1980s that the city's perilous financial state eased, after which an increasing number of private companies — mostly financial firms tied to Wall Street — became tenants.
Moreover, the trade center's "superblock", which replaced a more traditional, dense neighborhood, was regarded by some critics as an inhospitable environment that disrupted the complicated traffic network typical of Manhattan. For example, in his book The Pentagon of Power, the technical historian Lewis Mumford denounced the center as an "example of the purposeless giantism and technological exhibitionism that are now eviscerating the living tissue of every great city." "
I believe America was watching Football one 9/11 sunday.
Shut the fuck up already. Seriously. SHUT UP!! I hate the 9-11 families. It's not scared. It's not special, your loved one's were not special and you are not special so shut the fuck up.
This would delay GZ construction not by 3 days, but maybe as much as 6 months. The old WTC site had its problems, but the new are even worse.
Why can't their mourning be private? Why should the city have to cater to their needs? They really need to move on and start living life, instead of "remembering death" and what was.
Here's to the "Put it above ground group"
REMEMBER TO FORGET
Grief, outrage, restitution, confusion, invasion, war, colonial expansion, nationalism, death, death, murder, and more death! Then... the archeology of the sacred dead, the litigations of unbearable grief... etc etc etc. Its all so awful. I feel for these families, and I also feel for the victims dying daily in Iraq (soldiers and civilians). This is the chaos and death that those who would bring us all down wanted to put into motion. This is the shit we are in. How do we end it? How can we make a better world? Why are these questions not at the forefront of these families minds?
When September 11th happened, the general consensus was that we should "never forget." We saw countless banners to that effect, around the city. What does this indicate about the extent to which we are indeed forgetting?
i can't believe ann coulter commented 13 times in this post as "guest," doesn't she have her own website?
To change the subject: I work near Zuccotti Park (though I had no idea that was the name). Let me tell you, that "Joie de Vivre" is one ugly fucking "sculpture".
To all of you posting nasty comments about 9/11 families: I hope one day you lose a loved one in such a horrific way and are thrown into the spotlight every day for the rest of your lives. You people have absolutely no clue. Go F--- yourselves!