NO POLITICS WHERE HEROES DIED

WHERE TO MEET

At the World Trade Center Site (corners of Church and Liberty Streets in front of the stage)

TIME

Program will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. and conclude at 10:30 a.m.

SIGNS

Family Member Group members will have a limited number of signs to hand out. Please feel free to bring signs. All signs should reflect the message: No politics where heroes died - The IFC Must Go.

RALLY PROGRAM

--Rally Welcome & Moment of Silence and Reflection, Anthony Gardner, Brother of

--Harvey Joseph Gardner III

--Edie Lutnick, Sister of Gary Lutnick

--Jim Slevin, Uniformed Firefighters Association

--Jack Lynch, Father of Firefighter Michael Lynch

--Michael Burke, Brother of Captain William Burke

--Closing Remarks, Patricia Reilly, Sister of Lorraine Lee

--God Bless America, performed by Patrick Lynch, Brother of Firefighter Michael F. Lynch

Tomorrow, supporters of the effort to keep politics out of the 9/11 memorial will gather at the WTC site.

The New York Post, in a September 8, editorial, pulls no punches in its opposition to the ill-conceived International Freedom Center proposed to be part of the 9/11 Memorial.

The Post writes:

CLOCK'S TICKING ON IFC

Those clever folks behind the Interna tional Freedom Center must be running scared. Why else would they cobble together a seven-member "family advisory panel" to help sell their profoundly ill-considered museum?

The IFC honchos said Tuesday they want more survivor involvement with the plan. This may be true, but it's late in the game to be getting all sensitive about the feelings of 9/11 family members.

More likely, the Ground Zero commemoration committee understands that efforts to raise $500 million from the public for a memorial will be severely compromised by fund-raising for Hurricane Katrina victims. Better to prime the cash pump now, before it's too late for cajolery of any sort.

For, clearly, the IFC's presence has hindered fund-raising for the memorial, as Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman John Whitehead admits. Donors rightly fear that the cultural center will facilitate America-bashing — and on the hallowed grounds where the WTC fell, no less.

And, again, the already-stiff competition for public dollars grew stiffer as estimates of Katrina's toll rose as high as $150 billion.

The WTC Memorial Foundation wants "only" a mere $500 million for its Ground Zero facilities. But who knows if any public or private dollars will be available, given the nation's growing needs?

That's why it's going to be more important than ever to get the Ground Zero plans right. Meaning: no IFC.

A family advisory committee just won't cut it. Who are its members, anyway?

* One of its co-chairmen: Paula Grant Berry — who has served as IFC vice chair, even as the center put forth plans to host "educational" programs that will permit criticism of America's record (or be worthless educationally).

* The other chairman: Tom Roger, who also backs the IFC.

* Another member: Robin Theurkauf, a Yale professor (Exhibit A) and anti-war activist (Exhibit B).

A stacked deck? Sure is.

In any event, many 9/11 family members continue to oppose the IFC. Yesterday, 15 family groups jointly rejected the idea of a panel and called the IFC a "travesty."

"The IFC's determination to host controversial debates about America's domestic and foreign policy in the wake of 9/11, turning the site into a 'Public Square on Sacred Ground,' will make a mockery [of] the memorial's mission," they said.

Want "moral standing"? Consider the 22,000-member Uniformed Firefighters Association, which vehemently opposes the IFC.

Want evidence that its work is likely to be inappropriate at Ground Zero?

Consider a 9/11 anniversary "summit" to start today (September 8), "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.

I think it is incumbent on all Americans to speak out and prevent Ground Zero from being hijacked by a group of radical "blame America" Leftists.

It's extremely disturbing that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is urging American corporations to continue to fund his vision of a 9/11 memorial, one that includes the IFC.

Under no circumstances should Ground Zero become a site for America-bashing. That should not even be up for debate.

Frankly, I find it disgraceful that the Mayor would consider it appropriate to include the IFC at the 9/11 memorial.

It is utterly disrespectful to the victims and the heroes of 9/11, and their surviving family members, to deface Ground Zero with an anti-American oasis.

The USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii, commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor, contains no such facility.

Why at Ground Zero?

Gettysburg National Military Park honors the over 51,000 soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. There is no lack of respect for the sacrifices made on the battlefield back in 1863.

Why at Ground Zero?

The IFC does not belong where the towers fell.

It's a big country. The self-loathing liberal elite can take their International Freedom Center somewhere else.

NOT AT GROUND ZERO.