The Post calls the IFC profoundly ill-considered. It raises the serious issue of whether the IFC is going to hamper fundraising for the museum when there are more pressing fundraising needs right now - Hurricane Katrina victims and it is clear that the IFC's participation in the cultural space has had a negative effect on fundraising to this point. The addition of the 9/11 families to an advisory panel only deflects criticism, but it doesn't remove the salient point - that the IFC should never have been allowed to participate in the Ground Zero rebuilding. The anti-Americanism spewed by its members goes against everything that 9/11 is - unless you actually believe that the US deserved a massive terrorist attack which murdered nearly 3,000 people doing nothing more than going to work, travelling on planes, or doing mundane activities in NYC, DC, and in the skies overhead.
Want evidence that its work is likely to be inappropriate at Ground Zero?
Consider a 9/11 anniversary "summit" to start today, "What Comes After: Cities, Art + Recovery." Meant "to honor the 60th anniversary of the U.N." (Exhibit C), it challenges America's response to 9/11. And honors folks like Susan Sontag.
Sontag's take on 9/11? Not an attack on "liberty" but one "undertaken as a consequence of specific American . . . actions."
That is, America — and New York — deserved what it got.
The IFC needs to go. Now.
Take Back The Memorial wants to remind folks that they are still going to hold a rally September 10, 2005.
UPDATE:
The Deutsche Bank Building deconstruction is expected to start in 2006. This is the hulking structure shrouded in black at the southeast corner of Ground Zero. It was badly damaged by the collapsing towers and became heavily contaminated by materials deposited by the collapse. Cleanup of the building was deemed too expensive or too difficult. The building will be deconstructed on a floor by floor basis that is expected to take one year from the commencement of that operation. The acquisition and deconstruction of 130 Liberty Street provides for an expansion of Ground Zero and creates space for a 5th office building, approximately 30,000 square feet of additional open space in front of the tower, and vehicle security and bus parking to be located below ground and away from the area dedicated to the memorial.
Trees have been selected for use in the memorial.
The Sweet Gum trees tagged in Eastport, New York will be a part of the Memorial Grove of trees on the over six-acre plaza of the World Trade Center Memorial. Additional Oak and Sweet Gum trees will come from locations in Pennsylvania, Washington DC and other areas of the east coast. They will continue to grow and be shaped, maintained and monitored. All of the trees for the plaza will be then moved to a central growing area with a similar climate to New York City. In the Fall 2008 and the Spring of 2009, the trees will then be moved to the World Trade Center and installed onto the plaza. By the opening of the Memorial in 2009, the trees are expected to be 30-35 feet tall.
Despite the fact that The Drawing Center has withdrawn from participation in the WTC cultural center, it is still included in the LMDC fact sheet for the cultural facility.
Also, the Port Authority is displaying artwork by children of 9/11 victims at the PATH station.
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