Time to rethink this:
A two-year campaign to raise $30 million for a permanent memorial for the victims of Flight 93 has fallen far short of its goal, and organizers say they are shifting their strategy to close the gap.Only $11 million has been collected in the capital campaign for the $58 million memorial, a drive started by groups including relatives of the 40 passengers and crew members killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
What's not mentioned in the article is the design (and redesign) was controversial, alienating many who would have normally subscribed to the fund. I don't find groves of trees and wind chimes particularly evocative in any case -- it's weak tea, with emotions being diffused and diluted among acres. Perhaps our next memorial will be an installation that wafts a series of scents meant to lead us through a progression of moods as we ride along on a moving sidewalk laid out in figure eights (chosen by the designer to symbolize eternity, of course).
I really miss the permanence, power, and beauty of a single sculpture that draws the eye and focuses the emotions.
Posted by floridacracker at April 29, 2007 07:30 AMI see the Heinz foundation was/is one of the main contributors.
Leave it to John Kerry to want to build a memorial to our fallen that apologizes to the enemy.
Posted by: csason at April 29, 2007 12:53 PMEspecially a 'memorial' in the shape of a *crecent*...
Idiots in charge are all touchy feely libtards that need to be tossed.
They need to cut their losses and get a national competition to design it and keep the Kerry influence as far away as possible.
Why not a statue or a bronze frieze depicting what happened? They have to design some half-a-billion dollar acreage-covering organic deal where it's got to be explained what all the shit means. And they still manage to make it offensive.
Posted by: Donnah at April 29, 2007 06:14 PMExactly...
Give an id10t a few million to design something and they'll spend money willynilly on BS trying to appease everyone and managing to piss them all off in the end without accomplishing the original purpose.
IMHO they really need to make it simple and befitting the courage of the passengers, not what that idiot design team came up with.
You people don't get it...9/11 wasn't an atrocity, it was a "tragedy." That’s why we refer to it as “9-11” and not “the 2001 attacks on America.” What part of "The Tragic Events of 9/11" don't you understand?
It was a tragedy for all. How this plane crashed is of no concern, except for the jingo xenophobes among us. It fell down and made us sad. Why can’t we just express that without all of the saber rattling?
As usual, New York is way ahead of those Pennsylvania yokels, even though New York suffered so much more when those buildings fell down. (How can we say they wouldn’t have fallen eventually? They were built in 1964!!)
Their memorial will have reflecting pool.
Posted by: CJ at April 30, 2007 12:45 PMUmmm... the only thing that immeadiatly pops into my mind after reading your statement is WTF is the color of the sky on your planet?
"9/11 wasn't an atrocity, it was a "tragedy.""
No, it was *another* direct attack on my, and everyone else's in the US lifestyles, by *Muslim* fundamentalist fanatics and it was an atrocity by definition.
It was a tragedy because intelligence was either ignored or covered up by the Clinton administration and its operatives in the various branches of goverment. That the CIA and FBI were not allowed by Jamie Gorelick in the Justice Dept. to share information may have been the single greatest roadblock to stopping it from occuring at all.
"How this plane crashed is of no concern, except for the jingo xenophobes among us. It fell down and made us sad." Ahhhh... a subtle mix of Jedi mind tricks and JarJar Binks.
Just a *small* correction to your BS. Islamofacists hijacked 4 airliners and then deliberatly flew 3 of them into occupied buildings after killing the aircrews with boxcutters in ways that you obviously want to ignore. The 4th jet crashed in a field in PA because several passengers decided it was time to make a stand and acted accordingly in the face of armed fanatics in control of their plane.
Just because I have an extreme hatred of Islamofacist terrorists doesn't mean I hate all Muslims, just the Islamofacists.
I'm not even going to bother quoting the last part... NY is 'talking' about what they want to do after clearing the lot where the WTC towers stood. The design team that has the PA project had a design ready to roll out till it got stopped by concerned citizens, or as you would call us "jingo xenophobes" because the design was reminicent of an Islamic crecent.
There isn't any 'sabre rattling' going on, its an *American* memorial dedicated to the hero's on that flight that us "jingo xenophobes" want to keep dedicated to them and not some 'global outreach' that includes the monsters that perpatrated the attrocity.
I'm wondering if CJ is being cynical ?? must be...
Whats messed up is , memorials are supposed to honor the dead.. NOT make the visitors *feel* anything, or *learn* anything persay..except that people died, how many, why, how etc.
Like the Pearl memorials..
Let's you know what an airhead the designer is.
You don't design a memorial to evoke anything..(I mean NOW they do, like the Wall) but it's supposed to be a marker..that's all. These designer's heads are so full of obtuse and oblique triangles (and such)
I am not sure I *want* to be evoked by their imagination
Sorry Gmac...I guess I buried my sarcasm too deeply.
In truth, I was arguing that it was an "atrocity" and not a "tragedy" from the beginning. (I guess I never did here, however.) I don't even use the term "9-11" -- too sterile -- I call it "the 2001 attacks on the U.S."
I've long been annoyed at the retrospectives on the attacks...which generally zip past the actions of the terrorists and focus on the drama of the towers coming down. It may as well have been an earthquake, judging from the approach.
The battle for Flight 93 was the the first blow in the GWOT. The memorial should have been designed by the American Battlefields Monument Commission, not some left-wing touchy-feely, Gaia-worshipping, multi-culti, Birkenstock-wearing hippies.
Whenever I hear the phrase" Crescent of Embrace", I am reminded of this:
http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000668.html
You freak me out a little Sandspur, reason is..
I am an inactive ham radio guy, and a really well known CB'er in Florida was 'Sandspur'. When she died a few years ago it was quite a deal.
Posted by: csason at May 1, 2007 06:07 PMMy appologies for questioning your sanity.
Your sarchasm didn't make it accross as clearly as you intended.
I get a bit frosty about Islamofacists and the design team that 'tried' to create a memorial in PA.
Your last statement I completely agree with, the MSM whitewashes the attackers and concentrates on the consequnces of their actions, not that attention shouldn't be paid to them.
"My appologies for questioning your sanity."
Thanks, Gmac. Now can you talk to my wife?
I have very strong views about Muslim extremism, focusing more on how the West reacts than the extremists themselves.
For people who have spent the last half-century mocking and criticizing Western culture, Muslim terrorism poses a real challenge. Because they never had to defend the West before, and they're not quite sure how to do it, or if they should.
