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After weeks of anger and public recrimination, the Mayor and families of September 11 victims have come to a compromise about this year's anniversary ceremony. Families will now be able to enter the "pit," which is where the basement of the World Trade Center once stood.
Controversy over the sixth anniversary of the attacks emerged after the mayor and Governor Spitzer sent victims' families a letter saying that the ceremony, held at Ground Zero in previous years, would be moved to Zuccotti Park, stressing that construction prevented them from holding the event there. Many families were upset, claiming that the city was downsizing the attacks and had even filed for a permit to hold a ceremony at Ground Zero. For some reason, the mayor's office didn't realize that families would be upset with the move.
The mother of a firefighter who died at the WTC, Sally Regenhard, described yesterday's meeting with the mayor as "congenial, compassionate and heart-to-heart meeting," and said "This is a very happy day for families that don't have much happiness in their lives."
The Mayor released a statement, saying, "The families proposed a very limited and controlled level of access to the below grade, and after consulting with the Port Authority, we've been told that this type of access can work. We will work with the Port Authority to allow family members to safely descend the ramp in a single file stream that keeps moving into a limited area below grade to pay respects, and to then ascend back to street level." Families will have "several hours of access" to lay flowers, but it's unclear what will happen next year, as construction will be in more advanced stages.
Photograph by MarkHout on Flickr
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ugh... you know these families are like children who have always gotten their way. everyone copes with loss, what in reality makes them so special that everyone must kowtow to them. they've been paid millions, are in the media constantly, have politicians falling over them. we've all lost loved ones, come on -- i have absolutely lost all sympathy for them at this point.
just to add to the 1st commenter, i never understood what made the victims all a hero. besides the first responders, these people simply went to work and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. is someone who on the way to work and gets killed in a car accident or struck by a bus a hero?! i have to agree, enough is enough.
i do feel bad for folks who lost loves ones, friends, etc. as a result of this horrible tragedy. however, these yearly remembrances do absolutely nothing but make matters worse, and bring old wounds back to the surface.
people need to move on, and do whatever they can to leave the past where it should remain -- the past.
No comment.
The place is a goddam construction zone, the families need to get over it (where the ceremony is held). The ceremony does NOT have to be "in the pit" every year. I'm tired of them already.
Eh as if seeing a muddy construction zone will make you feel any more connected to someone you lost years ago. If anything, Fresh Kills is where those people were burried.
For some reason, the mayor's office didn't realize that families would be upset with the move.
Maybe the mayor's office thought they were human beings, capable of rational thought, logic, and understanding beyond the rudimentary levels of, say, a mildly advanced chimp.
I know, I know ... stupid mayor's office.
#1, I agree completely, and to add to that, they can't get this memorial finished fast enough, so that these folks will have someplace to go and even if they have something to say, they won't have to be listened to.
Look, I've been in mourning, and it can at times take on elements of insanity, or at least irrationality. Eventually, you come back to the rational world, or sometimes you don't, or you don't completely. But I can tell you, the one thing you're in no shape to do is set policy for a diverse city with wildly different needs. Of course, because you're not in your right mind, you naturally think that you are the *only* one who can make the right calls. I've found what's needed here is someone who can gently but firmly tell you that the world isn't quite as you perceive it to be.
In other words, a leader. But instead we get "if I let you do this will you just go away?" And of course, they never do go away or get better.
This is the right result. Many families have never recovered the remains of their loved ones and to date there is no official memorial. Both an absolute disgrace. This gives the families a place to go with a real connection to the day.
We shouldn't judge how you are "suppose" to react to the sudden, horrific lost of someone you love. There isn't any one way. And some will never ever get over it. It's incredibly tragic and many of the comments above are harsh, unwarranted and callous and take away from how NYers here on that day and for months after treated eachother with compassion and love.
firmly tell you that the world isn't quite as you perceive it to be.
Yeah, and then the person you're trying to convince screams at you, files a lawsuit, and then goes of 20 talkshows to demonize you. America sucks.
#9, STFU
People are free to react however they want but there are no guarantees in life that you should be listened to or patronized at the expense of everyone else.
As for it being "a disgrace" that there is no memorial, name one memorial in this country that was thrown up in a few years. It took more than eight years from the end of the Viet Nam war to build the memorial on the DC mall - and that was before the Korean War vets got their memorial. And before the WW II vets got theirs. Deal with it.
And on the remains issue, most of the victims were vaporized. Deal with it. I've posted it here before but nobody seems that interested - more than 85,000 war dead from the US were never recovered.
I dont think its such a big deal to let people go in. People just dont want to stop anything because stopping construction hieghtens costs. As far as New Yorks so called Bravest. I dont consider many of the firefighters heros either. Most of them join that profession for money or bragging rights to the girls in the myraid of bars they hop after work. Or Because there father did it and its some kind of father son pact. Im sure if most of those firefighters would have known they were about to die many would not have gone up. But there would have been some and to those that risk there life for someone elses, i give praise. But most do it for a job like the rest of the people working in the WTC.
#12, when you make your living running into burning buildings instead of whatever it is that you do (and I gather it does not involve much danger to your life, if you are even old enough to work) I'd keep quiet about making assumptions about why people become firefighters.
The fact that you think most join for "bragging rights to the girls" makes me think you're probably ecstatic that your pubes have started to grow in.
thank you #9 for not being an ann coulter zombie like everyone else commenting on this page. they obviously didn't lose anyone & just don't get it. they must have just moved here from texas.
Honestly no 11 - what about compassion don't you understand? Just because things are or were a certain way (war dead/MIA never recovered and memorials taking years to build) doesn't make it right nor set a standard by which we hold all future events or ourselves. It's called evolution.
What is the harm in letting the families go to the site for a few hours? Lost construction time. Please. Seven years and here we are. FYI - the memorial to the British citizens lost in the towers is on its way to completion. Guess if it is a priority it will get done. That is the disgrace - just not a priority.
As for your constant whining about the visibility and lobbying of the families. I guess the Mayor figured it was a better political and ethical decision to work with the families then to be seen as a hard-ass. Not a great idea if you are thinking about a Presidential run. Why - because most of this country still cares about these families. Sorry - it is just the way it is.
Now the true test - would you or have you ever repeated what you wrote above to someone who was either in the towers or lost someone on that day?
Thanks Zodiak -- (no.9)Yep - Texas - that was my guess too.
everyone suffers tragedy in life, the difference is when your parents, spouse, etc dies no one will give a damn, the city wont come to a stop for it. These families don't have a lock on grief. The more they milk it, the more public opinion turns negative.
How interesting - those comments could never have been made on the spot or even in the Pataki years , when the thought police would dictate what freedom is . It is good to see that there are at least a few of us who value the meaning of words ("hero") or the proportionality of suffering ("Darfour").
Take care NYC>