Pardon the Language
Oh, shit:
The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on “a journey through the history of freedom”–but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC’s organizers, it is not only history’s triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. 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.
It’s worse than that. Debasing freedom on the site where freedom was attacked, is more akin to giving equal time to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion at the National Holocaust Museum. Why doesn’t the IFC just go on and include a multimedia exhibit of the West’s crimes against Islam?
Actually, it’s worse even than that: It’s treasonous.
Oh, I don’t mean treason in the legal sense. The IFC exhibit provides neither aid nor comfort to the enemy. In any case, I don’t use that word lightly here at VodkaPundit. A search through the archives finds just 11 posts using that word, in almost three and a half years – and never once used as an accusation. In that way, I’m a lot more …sober… than certain Republican talking heads on TV.
But the IFC exhibit is treason to the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who were murdered for the crime of going to work on 9/11/2001. Whatever our nation’s faults, whatever injustices have been committed in our names, no matter what someone might ever have suffered at our hands…
…those are not the stories to tell at the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood. At the site where 3,000 people were burned or crushed or leapt to their deaths. Not at the site where we suffered one of the worst surprise attacks in modern history, and against a civilian target.
We don’t memorialize our war dead by including pictures of them picking their noses. We shouldn’t remember our losses by blaming its victims – or even their great-great-grandfathers. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier isn’t inscribed with, “What a Fuck-Up, Huh?”
But those are the things that the IFC’s exhibit aims to do.
It must be stopped.
It must. be. stopped.
I think the only way to fight this is to fight fire with fire.
Perhaps its time to start a counter-museum dedicated to the human holocaust that has resulted from european utopian socialism and marxist economic theory? This months exhibit, the crimes of Robert Mugabe, the butcher of Zimbabwe, July is our ‘Fidel Castro, the Warden of Cuba’ Exhibit…
This sort of Orwellian re-write of history-thing is becoming an art form for the left. They did the same sort of thing with the Enola Gay exhibit at the Air&Space Museum, Canada recently had viewing of paintings of atrocities at their war memorial,causing untold uproar. last week, The Mayor of St-mere Eglise in France invited the German Airforce to take part in the D-Day commemoration, asking them to drop troops as well. ( the germans answered with polite silence…)
So, up is down, left is right, evil is righteous. Oh, and its all your fault, you fascist proletariat…
The NASM’s Enola Gay fiasco immediately came to mind here too. That blame America initiative was killed by a determined effort that cost the obnoxious NASM director his job. So the right pressure can get results. Let’s get ‘em!
When I read this I became so angry – I live within eye shot of where those towers stood. I printed out Debra’s article and am mailing it today to a group of 9/11 families that I know from Long Island. I doubt they know this information. They are the only ones who can cry out for it to be changed – and they will (I suspect). This is disgusting. This can not happen.
This must be stopped.
The Great Ground Zero Heist
The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the underground area where the names of the los…
I’m sitting just a few blocks away, and it completely disgusts and infuriates me. This only drives me further into the Trump “Rebuild ‘Em” camp.
Yup, Trump Twin Towers is nothing compared to this anti-american insult.
We need a battle plan. I like the idea of informing the families of those who lost their lives in the towers–but who else could we contact…? Hillary, maybe…?
This reminds me of the tributes to Randy Weaver and the dead Branch Davidian children at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Oh, wait, I don’t believe there are any such tributes. And nobody on even the outer extreme of the far right ever suggested there should be.
Pissing on three thousand graves
If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention. (Update: Links fixed. Thanks, fatman.) (Update 2: Where are my manners? Thanks for the tip, Joe Goat.)…
… those plans have changed more times than my ex-girlfriend before dinner with my parents. I doubt we’re looking at the final say-so, but it’s time to strike now.
As a moderate lefty, I’m miffed at the extent compassion can be perverted in this regard. I mean, it’s hard to say “no don’t memorialize the holocaust” … but what 9/11 family member is gonna want a headset-guided-tour through history’s horrors? …
That’s like former Robbin’s Island inmates discussing Hiroshima.
Um, excuse me Miss, I know your son died in the towers … but his plight wasn’t HALF as bad as that of the Native American …
That’s apples and oranges. And they don’t belong in the same basket.
I posted this article on http://www.rantburg.com yesterday with the following comment: “The author, the sister of one of the 9/11 (non-terrorist) pilots, points out how the far left is coopting Ground Zero. It’s powerful stuff and very well written. I hope my fellow RBers can help make a big enough stink that this PC crapola is nowhere near Ground Zero. Anybody know any NYC firefighters who can raise a stink about this? The ones that I know are dead, killed on 9/11.”
Steve – Better word than treason may be “sacrilege” that Webster defines as:
Hear Hear!
The memorial is to remember the fallen.
If others want to argue the context, let them find their own venue.
Soros is a cancer.
9-11 memorial-not what it appears
This needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. The World Trade Center memorial, as presently planned by the International Freedom Center Organizers, has turned into a platform for the political left, including George Soros, in which the story of
Pissing on 3.000 graves
trasformare Ground Zero in un monumento anti-americano. (via Wizbang). L’articolo sul WSJ.com
Contact Governor Pataki here:
Governor George E. Pataki
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
A letter is good. A phone call is better: 518-474-8390
An e-mail will do.
Contact Mayor Bloomberg here:
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
212-639-9675
E-mail
Sacrilege is indeed the right term. Read this yesterday in the WSJ and got so mad I could hardly see straight (I worked in those towers). Rudy should blow a gasket over this.
Right:
Giuliani Partners LLC
5 Times Square
New York, NY 10036
Tel: 212.931.7300
Fax: 212.931.7310
WAR: This Is Wrong
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I read this piece in the WSJ yesterday and I’m still too angry to write about it rationally. More from Jeff Jarvis, Vodkapundit, Wizbang, Michelle Malkin, and Captain Ed, just to name a few….
Did Bill Maher just get his wish?
“Um, excuse me Miss, I know your son died in the towers … but his plight wasn’t HALF as bad as that of the Native American …
That’s apples and oranges. And they don’t belong in the same basket. ”
Damn straight Johnathen.
Despite theconsiderable ramifications about what to in orderto commemorate the 9/11 victims, I think the reason why we are going through all this crap right now is because it took too long to formulate and agree on a plan. It’s freaking 2005 right now and construction has began on nothing!
Within the first six months someone shouldve already decided to whether or not to rebuild the twin towers back to its original function and include a fitting memorial. I understand the need for a committee to vett ideas and I admit my experience with public zoning and construction is slim to none but cant our government be more efficient than this?
If they really wanted to follow the sentiment of the people then they should have gone for the direct imput on fthe people of New York and act on that asap, instead of fretting and worrying how the world will percieve them and thus we end up with this politically correct monstrosity.
Hillary just might have the presidential election tied up if she can kill this dead and do something as sensible as what Trump proposes. Wonder if she can go that far to the common sense “center” and keep the granola’s in her party in line?
By the way, y’all should read IFC’s brochure .
Just, for, y’know, fairness and balancement.
And because it’s good to know yer enemy.
Just for the record, I don’t want no stinkin’ memorial. I want vengeance.
The Second Hijacking
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…
While I think a Freedom museum is kind of hokey, what are you proposing we build there instead? Yet another tribute to the dead? I’m tired of the victims families trying to control every inch of this space. Some of us actually have to live here (I live a few blocks away). The fact is that the families will die out in 70 years or so, but New York City will still be there. We can’t turn this site into a permenant graveyard.
There was a massacre on Wall Street early last century, but New York City rebuilt and proceeded. Now there is a simple plaque to commemerate the event.
That’s what they should do at Ground Zero. Put a plaque there, and show their tribute to the fallen by putting up new buildings. We’d be better off if they built condos at Ground Zero instead.
I agree Downtown Lad. It’s been turned into a religious shrine, a ‘sacred site.’ Well, if that’s true, then guess what: the sacred soil is all sitting in the Freshkills landfill on Staten Island. The best way to memorialize those poor folks is to rebuild and move on, giving the bastards that did it the finger in the clearest way possible.
And now, a word from our sponser, “9/11 guilt-drink,” the recycled artificially gin-flavored bottled municipal water from Demon-Tears, Ltd. — “Yes folks, our popular new drink, having nothing to do with national tragedy other than it’s name, (not to mention our cynical and tasteless exploitation of that event), is indeed as insipid as it’s name implies. But don’t let that stop ya’ll from purchasing it. Remember, you can only prevent another 9/11 if you consume our product. Otherwise, it’s all your fault.” — Now, back to the PBS shlockumentary, “How good is the cause of evil,” previously aired as “Let your defenses down, and everything will be just fine.”
p.s. – thanks for the info. I completely agree, it really * should * be * stopped!
I agree with almost everyone on here. Stephen and everyone made excellent points. It is completely inappopriate and misguided (and seriously flawed thinking I’d say) to have that exhibit there.
But, I’d like to point out to people like Frank and voxdelecti that acknowleding some of the darker parts of history is not a rewrite nor is it simply “politically correct garbage”. (Nor is it unpatriotic, as is so often implied.) Wanting to remember only a rosy side of history is the rewrite and is the politically-based version of the facts.
Maybe some of us “lefties” get carried way too far (and show an altogether different side of ignorance and fanaticism) with this kind of exhibit (with this being a very clear example), but don’t condemn the info as false, just condemn it’s location in this case. (Plus, the latter argument will find much wider appeal, and the lefties won’t write you off as just another right wing nut.)
Again, otherwise, I agree that the exhibit would be a horrible, horrible mistake.
This is abhorent! And they are using taxpayer money to fund this insult!
A “gateway” to a room underground? It sounds like the names of those who died are just in a tomb and the “gateway” is a memorial to something that never took place there. I’ve said this on other sites, keep the politics and agendas out of this area, there is no need for it. Rebuild the towers, the station, and whatever else was lost there, but include a memorial so everyone remembers those lost. You can find the reasons it happened in a book.
Look how simple the USS Arizona Memorial is, yet it is so beautiful. It’s not like there is a huge disply of the events leading up to the WWII there.
And people wonder…
Why don’t I support the Liberals of the world anymore: The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to…
We don’t memorialize our war dead by including pictures of them picking their noses.
The brought to mind a possible exhibit ..
“fart here for social justice”
The collected gas could be used to warm the homes of the poor.
Miller, I am as anti-revisionist history as anyone, but from what I heard suggested here, this simply does not fit.
When I went to the Holocaust museum in DC, they did not bring up every single tragedy of modern western civilization to date to put in a “panorama of pain” as it were ~I havnt been there in years so who knows what might have changed.
Yes it is good to remember the past in order to temper our actions and serve a guide but in this case it just seems to be a rehash of the same academic litany of sins that we were all inundated with in our middle and high school history classes.
Not that I’m complaining about that, half if not most of recorded human history is rooted in oppression and pain of some sort and that is how it will persist. However, if they’re going to choose to commemorate this particular instance, they should do that alone, not throw in everything else we should know if we had been paying any attention in social studies class.
Dude, don’t worry. I’m from Mississippi. Whenever I’m in New York and within walking distance of the Plaza Hotel, I saunter over and spit on the statue of Sherman. I’m telling you right here and now – I will have *NO* problem stepping into the nearest store that sells sledgehammers, and going on a rampage through this fucking thing.
An Insult To The Three Thousand
…who died at The World Trade Center on 9/11. {…}The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the…
Perhaps its time to start a counter-museum dedicated to the human holocaust that has resulted from european utopian socialism and marxist economic theory?
I’d like to build it myself – in Havana.
At the risk of sounding incredibly Machiavellian, this is a slam-dunk Sistah Souljah moment just waiting for a certain junior senator from New York with presidential aspirations.
(And I’d applaud her efforts if she took advantage of it.)
Thanks for that link to the IFC brochure…
Here it is again:
http://www.renewnyc.com/content/pdfs/IFC_Fact_Sheet.pdf
People concerned about this should go read the fine print as to who is involved with this…among them, I found Joe Trippi’s name included in the Planning Committee, and many others that are a surprise to anyone who anticipated a monument to 09/11 instead of a glorification of the Left.
I wrote to Bloomberg and will write to the rest.
What should the next step be? We have to demand that the whole committee be replaced by patriots. Shall we suggest an appropriate committee? Of the top of my head I
The Ultimate Guilt Complex.
Debra Burlingame wrote this in the Wall Street Journal op-ed section Tuesday regarding the International Freedom Center’s plan to create a “multimedia tutorial about man’s inhumanity to man”:Do we really want Ground Zero to be the playground of anti-wa…
Outrage!!
I have pontificated to anyone who will listen about my rage over the desecration of Ground Zero. VodkaPundit expresses my sentiments better than I could.
He also links to the oft-quaoted Debra Burlingame op-ed piece in the WSJ.
…
For anyone who didn’t read Debra’s article all the way through, please do note that she agrees that the evils that men do are important history that we should all know. She just makes the (seems to me incontrovertible) case that this site is not the place to catalog them.
Downtown Lad, yes, you’re right that the victims’ families are going to be gone in a few decades, like the rest of us. But the event is not going to disappear; its significance is not going to die. And a great part of its significance is the lives, and the kinds of lives, that were lost there: innocent travelers whose own bodies were used as weapons against other innocents; people working to prosper themselves, their families, their companies, and – in capitalist fashion – society; rescue workers who headed up when everyone else was trying to get DOWN. And the evil wretches who were willing to bring down all that miraculous creation, all those souls, for the sake of some virgin tail in the hereafter.