A Fitting Place at Ground Zero

The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 9, 2005 | Richard J. Tofel

[ntnychik]

A year ago tomorrow, a new institution called the International Freedom Center was formally designated by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. as one of the four cultural institutions for the World Trade Center site, all to be operated under the aegis of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. ... snip

...the International Freedom Center...will serve as a complement to the Memorial, bringing a universal "narrative of hope" to a place where hope is imperative... snip

...the International Freedom Center will host debates and note points of view with which you--and I--will disagree... snip Judge Learned Hand may have put it best in the speech he gave in a New York City park during one of freedom's darkest hours...: "The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women."

Ground Zero is...the right place to make this stand and leave a legacy for our children and generations to come. No less than Abraham Lincoln told us so, and at no less a place than Gettysburg.... Lincoln did not speak at Gettysburg of Little Round Top or Pickett's Charge. He talked about the future, and here is what he said:

"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom."

[ntnychik]

On Tuesday, Wall Street Journal published the article, "The Great Ground Zero Heist," by Debra Burlingame, sister of the pilot of Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB111810145819652326-IVjfINjlaJ4n5usa4KGaayIm4,00.html

This article is the reply by the president of the International Freedom Center to Burlingame's article.

I have sent a letter to the editor of the WSJ noting the deliberate omission by Tofel of the final phrase of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom...AND THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH.

Previous thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1419458/posts?page=19

[CasearianDaoist]

This is just so disgusting. The whole project down there is just one huge Leftist capitulation.

Why on earth do we need a "universal narrative?"

This country has fallen so low.

[Enchante]

Memo to Richard Tofel:

Stop trying to be an apologist for leftist morons who want to hold an anti-American hatefest at Ground Zero, on our dime no less! These idiotarians must be booted far away from the process of planning the Ground Zero memorial! They already control most of our universities, at our expense - they are NOT going to control Ground Zero.

[commonasdirt]

I knew the whole thing was suspect the minute I saw the word "International" Freedom Center. Considering the power players involved it is going to take A LOT of noise to stop them from shoving this down our throats.

[gridlock]

We know that these morons exist. We probably can't do anything about that. But that does not mean we have to turn a portion of the 9/11 site over to them. Let them expound upon their BS theories in the salons and lecture halls of the univesities stupid enough to employ them. They should not have a part of the hallowed ground of 9/11.

[gridlock]

Note that this turkey has the audacity to excerpt Lincoln. He left out the conclusion...

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I guess that is because these intellectual elites are not particularly interested in what "the people" have to say about their little enterprise. If they want to quote Lincoln, I say let them support the spirit of Lincoln and let the people decide whether or not they are to be granted a portion of the 9/11 site, literally on top of the unmarked graves of our countrymen, to expound upon the usual lefty hobbyhorses of how eeeeevil the United States is in the World.

Put it to a vote, Big Shot. How about a non-binding referendum of New Yorkers, to decide whether or not they get to build their monument to PC multiculti on the bones of our comrades.

[CasearianDaoist]

I doubt if we can stop it. The only way would be for the citizens of new york city and state to make an election out of it.

The people running this see nothing wrong with it at all.

They converted that wonderful customs house off of broadway into an "American Indian Muesum" a decade ago when that was all the rage. hardly anyone goes in there except on lunch to beat the heat. Can you imagine a sillier place for such a thing?

There use to be rational people in the mix, but they are no longer around it seems. NYC is getting to be almost as bad as SF.

[popdonnelly]

Ground Zero is international in this sense. It's a place where American heroes sacrificed to try to save American citizens from a holocaust brought on by foreign lunatics. I suggest they post that prominently at the International Freedom Center.

[ntnychik]

Link to Burlingame's article: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/0,,SB111810145819652326-IVjfINjlaJ4n5usa4KGaayIm4,00.html