NEVER FORGET

Major September 11 Family Organizations Challenge America and Its Leaders to Keep the Promise to Never Forget 9/11

July 11, 2005 New York, N.Y. – At a press conference today on the steps of City Hall, family members of relatives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 representing fourteen major September 11 organizations challenged the International Freedom Center’s latest ploy to hijack the memorial at ground zero and called on America and its leaders to act now to ‘Take Back the Memorial.’

The event was opened with a moment of silence in memory of the victims and survivors of last week’s bombing of London transport. The family organizations, which represent civilians, firefighters, police and emergency personnel, restated their objections to a massive cultural complex intended to house institutions that have no relevance to September 11, 2001 that infringes on and will overshadow the memorial.

“Freedom is an ideology,” said Charles Wolf whose wife Katherine was murdered in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. “Ideologies change over time. Memorials are meant to be perpetual and eternal – they’re meant to go beyond a period in time.”

“We must not make a mockery of the words ‘Never Forget,’” said Debra Burlingame who lost her brother Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. “We think the public will not be fooled by the IFC’s new plan to appropriate 9/11 artifacts. It’s the height of arrogance and insensitivity to use these precious objects as mere window dressing or statuary.”

Calling on President Bush to intervene, Jack Lynch whose son, Michael F. Lynch died rescuing others in the South Tower on September 11, 2001 remarked, “Mr. President, one of your staff last week stated in response to a reporter’s question that the memorial is a ‘New York issue.’ Nothing could be further from the truth; this is an American problem as it was America that was attacked. Saying that the memorial at Ground Zero is a New York problem would be like calling Gettysburg a Pennsylvania problem or Pearl Harbor an Hawaii issue. We expect better of you.”

The 14 major family organizations called on President Bush and Congress to come to their aid and honor their promises to ‘Never Forget.’ They asked all American citizens to log on to www.takebackthememorial.org, sign the petition and call their elected officials and ask them to make the WTC memorial reflect only the history and events of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001. They also called on the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Boards who both meet later this week to exercise their fiduciary obligation to protect this memorial.


Sign the petition.