HALLOWED GROUND

AP reports:

9/11 Families Protest WTC Freedom Museum

NEW YORK — Family members of those killed at the World Trade Center are balking at plans to add a museum of freedom at ground zero, arguing it would allow politics to infect a place revered as sacred.

Relatives representing 14 family groups rallied at the site Monday to condemn plans for the International Freedom Center, which officials said would place the 2001 terror attacks in a historical context.

The center would be part of a cultural complex set to open in 2009 at the northeast end of the rebuilt trade center site. It would host discussions on historical and current events, exhibits on global freedom movements and a service program encouraging activities that could range from joining the Peace Corps to enlisting in the U.S. military.

According to the International Freedom Center's Web site, the museum will "deal with the international impact of September 11," as well as such issues as segregation in America and the Holocaust.

"It doesn't belong at a memorial," said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, died in the World Trade Center collapse. "You wouldn't put a debate about Nazism and authoritarianism at Dachau."

Center President Richard J. Tofel said that while the causes of the Sept. 11 attacks would not be up for debate, the center would not bar criticism of the United States and its actions.

"Part of the way we celebrate freedom is to acknowledge that even the greatest societies in the world and those that have made the greatest contribution to freedom are not perfect," he said.

The memorial to the World Trade Center victims should not include references to America's imperfections. There are plenty of other places for leftists to engage in pointing out the country's short-comings and do that sort of hand-wringing--NOT at the burial grounds of the innocent men, women, and children who were murdered on that site.

Is the memorial truly meant to honor the victims and heroes of 9/11? Or is it meant to highlight some sort of moral ambiguity?

I think it's highly inappropriate to use Ground Zero to apologize for anything.

Does the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor make references to America's mistakes in the segregated South? Such a museum does not belong there. Why distract from the 9/11 memorial by making such out of place associations?

Sign an online petition to "Take Back the Memorial."