TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL

So here are a series of emails sent/received/sent since my last post.

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Dear Mr. Tofel (President, International Freedom Center):
We are the parents of an American soldier currently serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom III.

We are former residents of New York. We strenuously object to any Memorial at WTC being anything other than a memorial/memorials entirely and strictly dedicated to the Victims murdered at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. If Tom Bernstein and others fronting for various human rights organizations desire a "learning center" to highlight man's inhumanity to man, please insist that they use someone else's money and that they put their "learning center" somewhere else -- Switzerland (the bastion of neutrality), or on the grounds of any of the preserved Nazi Death Camps... or perhaps in one of the burned out villages in Darfur... or at the site of any one of the many mass graves provided by Saddam Hussein.

The United States was attacked on September 11, 2001 and the memorial should be to the victims and to the American people who fight oppression and tyranny worldwide to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
Sincerely,

Thursday, June 09, 2005
Thank you for your note. I know it was based on hearing one side of this story. I hope you'll take a few minutes now to read the other side:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006795
Respectfully,

Dick Tofel, President, International Freedom Center

Thursday, June 9, 2005
Mr. Tofel:
Thank you for your response. We have read your response with great interest -- hoping that the initial stories were perhaps inflated. Sadly, that is not the case. However noble your and the International Freedom Center intent is, we are still not convinced that the WTC site is the appropriate place for such an endeavor. Perhaps it should be at the United Nations, a body allegedly devoted to Peace in the World that surely could use the attention and commitment of such a gesture? You do yourself and your project no favors parading the signatories to such a grand scheme from academia, given the history of such individuals and their somewhat anti-American stance.

To be clear, we are true supporters of all the concepts of freedom and herald its great history -- and mourn its tragic failings. However, the fight of the Czech Republic and such other struggles for democratic rule have no place at such a site. "Ground Zero" truly is hallowed ground to us and most Americans -- as sacred as any national cemetery or battle site -- and we would no more support this grand scheme were it proposed for Arlington National Cemetery or the Gettysburg Battlefield.

We remain committed to the idea that the entire site of the attack of September 11, 2001 be reserved entirely as a memorial committed to the victims of that attack, the American people and the men and women who have given their lives in this War on Terrorism.

Respectfully,


And thanks to LimeShurbet (www.limeshurbet.com) who thought my response to Mr. Tofel clear enough to put it up on his site... and who has set up the Take Back the Memorial site (www.takebackthememorial.com). Be sure to visit the site and use the valuable contact links provided to register your opinion on this proposed travesty.

Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.