I have remained silent about anything connected with Sept. 11 for a very good reason. In the words of author Dalton Trumbo, “Nothing more can be said, it can only be done.” I’m afraid, though, that I’m going to have to break my silence. There are a couple of peripheral issues that I feel are necessary to address. First of all, there is a controversy that has been brewing over a proposed firefighters memorial statue to be placed at Fire Department Headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. The statue, based on the now famous photograph by Tom Franklin, shows three firemen raising a flag. I’m sure everyone’s seen the photograph of Dan McWilliams, George Johnson and Billy Eisengrein raising a U.S. flag from the rubble of the World Trade Center. It is probably one of the most enduring images of the whole affair. Anyway, the proposed statue, while based on the photograph, has been altered a bit. The three firemen in the statue are not the three men who were photographed. The image has been altered to “more accurately represent the 343 department members killed in the attacks,” according to FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon.
I have no problem with a statue reflecting the diversity of the firefighters who died that day, but I do not believe that photograph should be used as the model of such an effort. To do so is inappropriate to the point of being offensive. An alternate image should have been used as the model for the statue. Changing an existing image to make it look the way you want it to may be called “revisionism,” or some other $10 word, by some folks, but to me, it’s simply lying. There are enough “historical” monuments around the country that perpetrate lies without adding another one. Either make the statue look like the photograph actually looked or don’t make it look that way at all.
Another issue to emerge out of New York is the Ground Zero controversy. Developers, being who they are, naturally want to build a new World Trade Center with a small memorial to the people who died. A recent gathering of architects in New York unveiled several new designs for a reborn World Trade Center. To be honest, a lot of them were like “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”-strange, bizarre and unexpected. However, all of them believe that rebuilding is the way to go. Several victims’ relatives, however, see it differently. They believe that the entire 16-acre plot should be one big memorial.
Given the sheer magnitude of the events of Sept. 11, I agree with the families on this one. The Ground Zero site has become a shrine to many Americans. Redeveloping that piece of real estate will desecrate that shrine. Certainly there are enough abandoned buildings around the New York/New Jersey area that could accommodate business offices without redeveloping Ground Zero.
I know that many people feel that by not rebuilding the World Trade Center, we are “letting the terrorists win.” I don’t believe that. The only way the terrorists can win is if we lull ourselves back into the tranquil, naive slumber that we so abruptly awoke from on the morning of Sept. 11. If we ease back into the rut of “business as usual,” we’ll comfort ourselves with the false belief that all is well, evil doesn’t exist and nothing can harm us.
I’m not saying that we should be paranoid; I’m saying that we should never forget what happened and why. The terrorists will win only if we forget, and if we rebuild on Ground Zero, in time we will.