Protesting the Politicization of the 9/11 Memorial
I’ve been working my butt off the last few days creating an online petition system for takebackthememorial.org
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.
OpinionJournal: The Great Ground Zero Heist
Everyone rolled their eyes when serial dickhead Bill Maher suggested that we build a “Why They Hate Us” pavilion at ground zero… but don’t blink: it’s happening.
Go sign the petition, if this sickens you.
We, the undersigned, believe that the World Trade Center Memorial should stand as a solemn remembrance of those who died on September 11th, 2001, and not as a journey of history’s “failures” or as a debate about domestic and foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Political discussions have no place at the World Trade Center September 11th memorial, and the International Freedom Center honors no one by making excuses for the perpetrators of this heinous crime. The memorial should be about what happened that day, about the brave heroes who risked their lives so selflessly, and about the innocent lives that were lost… nothing more.
TakeBackTheMemorial.org: Petition
MARK RULES!!!
Ok, the 80’s moment has passed.
Good job Mark. You really are a genius with this stuff.
I signed it, with pride.
Amazing. I signed.
I don’t agree with this memorial they are proposing, as I didn’t agree with Bill Maher’s “Why They Hate Us” memorial idea (even though I enjoy his program and think he makes some good points), but I do think that as Americans we need to at least understand why a sizeable portion of the worlds hates our guts. We don’t have to agree with why they hate us, as I don’t for many of the reasons, but at least be willing to be knowledgeable for why they do. That was Maher’s point, although I’m not sure if it’s this new memorial’s point. You’ve been quick to point out on your site many “South Park” references, and I’ll give you another one. In the episode where the boys travel to Afghanistan and meet Osama Bin Laden, the kids ask the Afghans why everyone hates them. The reply is, “because you don’t realize that everyone hates you.” I think that’s a fairly good critique of America, and the rest of the world for that matter. It doesn’t seem to be a logical reason for hatred, but we are hated for that reason. Maher’s idea, and this new memorial, seem to want to educate the world on man’s intolerance to man, and every nation (yes, even America) is guilty of that. Is it proper? No. Is it tactful? Absolutely not. But sometimes a drastic statement can bring about proper change.
Shuck – with all due respect, that is, well, a lot of things and this is Mark’s blog so I am going to watch my tongue.
Let’s just remember South Park is a cartoon and people that hate usually don’t need much of a reason.
Agreed. It’s not that these questions shouldn’t be asked… it’s about their appropriateness at a 9/11 memorial at ground zero, which should be a tribute to the heroes and the victims.
And yeah, I enjoy Maher from time to time… but often he says things just to get a rise out of people. e.g. what he said about the whole mess of female teachers having sex with 12 year old students:
I agree completely that ground-zero is not a place for these questions to be asked. But I guess that I’m also an idealist, and hope that at some point we can ask these questions, because as of yet I have not seen an appropriate forum.
And you also must remember that Maher is a comedian as well, and sometimes a comedian’s job is to get a rise out of people.
I think Condi’s statement today pretty much said it all with regard to why our government has been hated.
Too much do as we say, not as we do BS.
If we’re going to ask the question, we have to be prepared for the answer to be “because America will not worship Allah.”
Many of the people asking “why do they hate us?” do so rhetorically, because they’ve already made up their mind that capitalism and its “evils” are to blame. And even if capitalism is the reason they hate us… would we consider giving it up to appease a bunch of terrorists?
So if the question is asked honestly, I have no problem with it… but many of the people who ask are being less than honest.
And Maher gets a rise out of people in ways that aren’t comedic. George Carlin can say something that appears to be offensive, but actually makes you think. I don’t think pissing people off just to piss them off is good comedy.
[...] t lives that were lost? nothing more. TakeBackTheMemorial.org: Petition [via Tempus Fugit]
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[...] otepad. Angsuman uses WP-Cache to protect his blog from “the Slashdot Effect.” Mark wants you to sign a petition if you agree with his point of vi [...]
The New York Times Op-ed page ran a hit piece today on the “Take back the 9/11 Memorial” petitioners.
Click here to read about it.
This is getting a little ridiculous. Why can’t the 9/11 memorial just describe what happened on 9/11?
This memorial is a disgrace to those citizens and military alike that fell to the cowardly acts of terrorism. This memorial should reflect the events of 9/11, “period”. In addition, remembering all of the lives lost in the war on terror over seas to honor those who have fallen in the hunt for Bin Laden and the preservation of freedom. What New York does not need is a multi-world event memorial that shows slavery, events from russia and the holocaust. There are memorials for those events already. Lets get it together people and start using our heads alittle bit.