Aug 03 2008
Flight 93 Memorial Now Only A Monument To Shallow Bureaucrat Egos
I could not make it to this weekend’s debate on the travesty that is the Flight 93 Memorial. Sadly, after reading the news reports, I must admit I am sort of glad I did not go down and see the debacle myself. I am not sure how I could take in all the bureaucratic BS and still enjoy my wedding anniversary today (a great 23 years and counting!).
It has been proven that the Crescent of Embrace is still an Embrace of Islamic symbolism. When it was shown that the Crescent aligned perfectly as a giant pointer to Mecca (which has been proven, so you junior Einsteins put down your pencils) that entire theme for the memorial needed to be junked. Instead of the Red Crescent (or broken circle) they should have gone back into the 100’s of design proposals and picked something new. But some bureaucrats’ egos are in the way. Instead of fixing the mistake they have tried to simply cover it up. Â They didn’t event try and re-orient the ‘broken circle’ (i.e., the crescent) to point it away from Mecca (something easy to do). Â
This has become a monument to them, the stubborn and defiant Bureaucrat, and not a monument to the American heros of flight 93:
After months of controversy over the design, yesterday’s meeting of the Flight 93 task force and commission at the Somerset County courthouse seemed intended, at least in part, to answer the critics and put an end to the dispute.
Hanley made an emotional presentation, defending herself against critics who, she claimed, have “cajoled and threatened” her.
“I’ve been told I would be destroyed,” she said, adding the design process “honored the democratic values of free speech.”
Hanley said some people were attempting to “change the truth” with their charges. Some charges were simply “made up,” she said.
It has come down to this – a public meeting for some stubborn fools to defend their inexcusable actions of defiance. The facts about the monument are not ‘made up’. And I can tell you, from a mathematical standpoint, the odds of someone accidentally lining the Crescent shape up to point directly at Mecca are astronomical. Are we supposed to believe it just happened to be a crescent shape, with the graves of the fallen at the point where a Islamic Star rests, all perfectly aligned towards Mecca, and using red trees make the crescent?
Why blood red? Why not red, white and blue? Why the crescent? This was the first battle in the war on terror where Americans fought back and won.
Why not purple flowering plumbs in the shape of a “V” – a “V” for victory. Victory is something the passengers and crew of Flight 93 attained at an unimaginable price that day. Victory is something this nation promised all those who died on 9-11. Â Purple is the color of victory through democracy in the hotbed of Islamo Fascism. And purple is of course part of America’s “purple mountain magesty“. The entire monument should be a reminder of the sacrifice by Americans to gain victory over a sick and dangerous enemy.
We don’t need a broken circle of ’embrace’, we don’t need a Kumbayah circle – these fallen heros are already embraced in our hearts and in our history. You want some Muslim symbolism to bridge the differences that caused 9-11? The purple V for victory has that, in a manner that recognizes what the fallen paid for.
This is only meant to show there are better solutions out there. And the Flight 93 Memorial effort has hundreds in their hands right now to chose from. Sadly, as we can see, this memorial has become about the egos on the Flight 93 Memorial project. There is only one thing left to do – we need to call on Congress and the President to shut this mess down now. Get the egomaniacs who are defending their mistake by illustrating they were too naive to know better (best case they have) off this project. Â They have already failed America and our fallen heroes. They had a horrible design concept and when discovered they tried to hide it. There is no excuse and no reason to keep these people around.
We need a monument we are ALL proud of. There is still time to chose from the other options and move out. President Bush, Senator McCain, members of Congress, we need your help. Pull the plug on this. Fight for the proper Memorial to our fallen 9-11 heros. We need a reminder this election year of what we have been fighting for since 9-11, and this will help remind us, refocus us. We need to stop those easily distracted by minutia and petty, personal gain. We need a monument to heros, not to stubborn bureaucrats.Â
Final note: In my mind here are some real heros, fighting the mindless bureaucracy. Â
Tom Burnett Sr, father of one of passengers on Flight 93
Â
Alec Rawles, who has doggedly pursued this disaster in the making.
Addendum: I have to send a message to those stubbornly holding onto this disastrous design. If this design survives there will always be whispered rumors this monument is an Islamic symbol. Even if not true in your minds, it will become true in myth and rumor. It may get so bad it becomes a rallying point for our enemies. These are factors that must be considered.
Right now it is more true than anything else about the monument, it has Islamic symbolism in it.  And with good evidence not hysterical visions. Those who can’t figure out how navigation on a globe ends up aligning the crescent with Mecca demonstrate over and over again why this alignment is nearly impossible by accident or amateurish intent. It takes a special mathematical knowledge to realize which way is Mecca. It is not something anyone can just do on a whim and a globe.
So we will have a monument where the mythology of its Islamic hidden message will long survive – a testament to the foolishness of not changing course when first alerted to the problems. But let me also remind you of who you honor, and how you pale in comparison to them right now. This will be especially hard to hear for those family members of the victims, but you sully their sacrifice with your stubbornness.Â
To truly honor them, to truly experience what they did, you must take some incredibly precious to you and throw it away for the good of others and the good of this country. To even be in the same league as those you honor, you must throw this lame crescent away and start new. Â Then, and only then, will you be even marginally close to them in character. They threw their lives away for this country, you can surely throw this design away. Â At least you will be alive and with your family after such a ‘sacrifice’. Â But moreover, you will be a lot closer to those you lost and honor in the annals of humankind. Is this a monument to sacrifice or ego?
You are not publishing the names and pictures of the “mindless bureaucrats” because…
VA Voter – don’t have them. And why would I ‘honor’ them???
We need to get Bush and McCain on this. Bush especially – it would be worth 1,000 Clinton pardons if Bush would just dump this group and start over.
.. dont want the Islamic killers identifying the wrong targets
AJ, I respectfully disagree on the point of “outing” the intransigent bureaucrats. As an example, O’Reilly doesn’t honor the judges and others that he outs or surprise interviews on his TV show.
My purpose is the opposite of honor. It would be to shame and expose them in the eyes of the public and to force them into public accountability for their actions.
You succeeded in getting me riled up on this, but now what do you want me, and others like me to do?
My guess is that McCain and Bush aren’t going to get involved unless and until the commission is bloodied and battered.
Why not find a way to give Tom Burnett Sr. and Alec Rawles a forum to expose this travesty to a wide audience and question the motives of individual bureaucrats?
Funny that you should also mention the “V” for victory as appropriate symbolic reference to this memorial instead of the giant mihrab abomination.
Last night, as I was looking for updates on the meeting, I came upon this msm video report ( downloaded here which provides an aerial view of the crash site. Lo and behold . . .no bowl shape visible – but look at the
highly defined “V” carved into the landscape.
Also on that video:
The US Parks Service contention is the design conforms to the landscape. According to memorial park superintendent Joanne Hanley of the National Park Service:
“We can’t change the land form. We can’t change the topography.
NOR WILL WE. And we can’t change the location of the sacred ground.”
Is that so??
Out of 1100 entries for the memorial design, Murdoch’s design was the only entry violating the singular physical requirement for design – to fit the natural landform.
Keep this fire burning. Alec Rawls has devoted countless hours and untold energy to exposing this Heinz-Kerry funded re-hijacking of Flight 93. His amazing effort should not be allowed to be stomped out by bureaucratic egos. This design must not be built on this site.
Gyess what…I saw yesterday…for the second time here in my local area in the past year:
Two women almost completely covered up with only the eyes and hands. Both were wearing jeans underneath their dresses, dark socks, dark tennis shoes, and two scarves. One scarf for the head and the other for the face.
I have seen women wearing dresses and headscarves but not their faces covered. The first time I saw a women covering her face was about a year ago at the local Wal-Mart. Yesterday was the second time at a grocery store. I also noticed two young boys laughing at them.
I don’t mind them wearing that way but I shudder to think if it is a sign of the beginning of Islamization here in this country. I’d like to think otherwise.
Did you guys read the interview between the son of a Hamas leader from yesterday? He grew up believing his father and working in the HAMA organization. When he was finally imprisoned, he saw that the prisoners were getting better treatment than those in the Gaza strip. That was when he began to read the Bible leading to his conversion to Christianity. He currently lives in LA. He predicts that Islam will die out in 25 years because the Internet pushes the truth about Islam, which not many can ignore. The radical Muslims can no longer cover up the truths.
Believe this interview is at Michelle Malkin’s website.
Correction: Andrew Boston had the link:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1007097.html
Islamic fundamentalists have been waging a terror campaign for half a century. At first, it has largely gone unnoticed. Marine Barracks, PanAm 103, First WTC Bombing, Khobar Towers, African Embassies, USS Cole were nothing more than distant incidents for most Americans. On September 11, 2001 it hit home. If most of Americans of the last generation remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, we all remember where we were when the second plane hit. And we knew: we are at war. We can call it the War on Terror, the War for the Free World, the War with Islamic Fascism, it doesn’t really matter. We all know who the enemy is. It’s Islamic radicals who are guided by the ideology of Islamic supremacy. Just as Nazis were guided by the ideology of Aryan supremacy. The only difference is that Gihadis consider it their religious duty to impose Islam all over the world and many of them yearn to die (and kill) for Allah. They use lines from the Koran such as “kill them [infidels] wherever you find them†or “slay the idolaters wherever you find them†as their guiding principles. I won’t get into lengthy theological explanation whether or not those lines are taken out of context or whether or not they only apply to specific historical events; it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Islamic fundamentalist believe that killing or subjugating infidels is their religious duty and they act accordingly. Some of you may be surprised why a Muslim would be speaking so harshly about his coreligionists. May I remind you, that Islamic radicals murder more Muslims than Christians, Jews, Hindus and everybody else combined. Gihadis may hate you for being infidels. But they really hate us for not following their demented dogma. And our attempts to reform Islam do not earn us much love either.
I would like to address the issue of Islamic symbolism in the proposed design. The shape of the “broken circle†resembles a crescent moon. So does the shape of the tower. Crescent moon is the most recognizable Islamic symbol. When we pray, we face Mecca and Mosques are traditionally built to face Mecca. The case could be made that the proposed design is aligned in North-Easterly direction, which corresponds with Qiblah, a direction to Mecca. Conventional wisdom would dictate that since Mecca is located to the South-East of Somerset, Qiblah cannot possibly have a North-Easterly direction. This assumption would be correct if you’re using a flat map. However, if you take a globe, place pins on locations of Somerset and Mecca, and connect those pins with a string, you’ll see that string at the base of Somerset pin points North-East. This symbolism may not be noticeable to a non-Muslim, and it is also possible, but likely improbable that the designer is ignorant of its significance. The proposed design would be perfect for EgyptAir 990 memorial. But for United 93 memorial, it is simply unacceptable.
On September 11, 2001 Americans came together. Conservatives and Liberals, Democrats and Republicans, Left and Right. We came together… For about two weeks. Then most of us fell back into complacency and political correctness. The very fact that Islamic symbolism is considered to be included in the memorial to the victims of Islamic terrorism proves it better than anything else.
In 2001 Islamofascist terrorists hijacked Flight 93 murdering 40 people on board. There were no Muslim people on that flight. There were Islamofascist terrorists. What possible reason could be there for including anything Islamic or anything even resembling an Islamic symbol into Flight 93 Memorial? Inclusion of Islamic symbols memorializes murderers who brought down the plane and is tantamount to spitting in the faces of victims and their families. United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked in 2001. Let’s not allow hijacking of Flight 93 Memorial in 2008. We, as Americans, owe it to the heroes of Flight 93!
Khalim Massoud
President
Muslims Against Sharia
http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/07/rally-this-saturday-stop-crescent.html
Thanks for adding that excellent comment Khalim.
AJStrata
Khalim: I applaud Muslims Against Sharia.. I see the many postings in the name of your group all over the internet..
Thank you.
It appears that the promotorers of this Islamic design are hell bent on creating a site for all grafitti artists and their ilk to honorably ply their fetish or trade. I personally may make a special trip up there to crap on their site. This is not going to be a monument to the victims of the fanatic Muslims who are responsible for this tragedy. It is an insult to their memory. It should be treatd as if it were a monument to someone like Adolph Hitler. They are creating a place where everybody can go to take out their venom and spite for any cause, whether real or imagined, without actually harming actual human beings. The Victim’s families should be given the first chance at desecrating the unholy site.
[…] it is in plain language, (from AJ Strata) so maybe even your puny little brains can understand why this memorial must be scrapped: If this […]