One magnificent memorial to remember every precious life lost. An appropriate recognition of the uniformed rescue workers who willingly and selflessly gave the supreme sacrifice to save others. Keep the names of the rescuers together so they remain united.
This is the mission of our group, the Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial. A retired firefighter, I started the advocates group because I was concerned that there might not be a memorial to recognize the courage and sacrifice of the firefighters, and other rescue workers.
If the memorial design includes a wall, we hope to see engraved in it all the names of the equally precious civilians listed together, the firefighters listed together, with their name, rank, serial number and company, and the same with the New York police officers and other rescue workers killed on September 11. The memorial should properly and accurately reflect the valiant rescue effort and historic sacrifice of New York's uniformed rescue services. This in no way seeks to diminish the lives or careers of the cherished souls who were working in the trade center on that fateful day.
We cannot expect future generations to understand fully what those who came before saw, experienced and felt on 9/11. But, we can make sure that our children know enough to say, "Thank you."
What should the World Trade Center memorial mean to future generations? It should serve to educate and remind all who visit the memorial that the terrorists did not harm the American spirit. And the members of the fire department, police department and Port Authority who knowingly and willingly responded to the World Trade Center tragedy on 9/11 greatly reflected that spirit as they gave the ultimate sacrifice so others could live. Over 25,000 people were saved because of the efforts of the uniformed men and women. And it should be noted for historical record.
The board members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation unanimously voted this past April on a resolution to ensure that the permanent memorial on the World Trade Center site not bear any "hierarchy of victims." In other words, no separate designations for the uniformed rescue workers who sacrificed their lives to save others.
There is no question that it is vitally important to honor the loss of life equally and remember all who died in the September 11th attack, as well as the 1993 bombing. Each innocent life lost was precious and our city continues to mourn as we remember the victims of our city, state and nation's most devastating terrorist attack. The permanent memorial will inspire us, and future generations, to continue to reflect on their lives and our loss.
However, every brave step forward our firefighters, police officers and emergency workers took in the midst of the tragedy must also be remembered.
We cannot forget the image of our uniformed members of the emergency service departments rushing into the burning towers as they selflessly honored their commitment to serve and protect. It is now time to make sure future generations do not forget as well. This in no way detracts from or places less value on the lives of civilians.
The development corporation's guiding principles state the memorial should recognize "courage and sacrifice." However, the board's move to permanently block this recognition seems to contradict the very spirit of their very mission. What is worse, it fails to demonstrate sincere gratitude and understanding of the sacrifice made by our fallen rescue workers.
Surely honoring their willingness to lay down their lives for others by designating a part of the greater memorial for them is the least we can do. We need to embrace our heroes left behind so we can go forward knowing they did not die in vain and we will remain forever grateful for their sacrifice.
We are thankful to Kevin Rampe of the development corporation for clearing up some of our concerns regarding this matter, and hopeful that the jury will honor the memorial guidelines' requirement to honor the role of the rescue workers.
On the fateful morning of September 11th, Battalion Chief Orio Palmer led his men of Battalion 7 far up the South Tower to the burning 78th Floor. Audiotapes of Chief Palmer's radio transmissions from the crash zone released one year after the tragedy are a resounding reminder of the courage and bravery of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In the tapes, Chief Palmer does not sound fearful or panicked. Rather, he can be heard signaling to those on the ground that he would continue to climb higher into the inferno to come to the aid of the victims who were counting on him to be there.
We must never forget the pride we felt the days, weeks and months following September 11th. We were proud to be Americans. And we were proud of our firefighters, police officers and rescue workers. They were our heroes. And we were grateful.
We must now make sure our gratitude is forever remembered by future generations on the site of New York City's uniformed rescue services' greatest sacrifice. They did their job. We must now do ours.
Chief Palmer's 12-year old son Keith said it best in a poem he dedicated to his father that was recited at his funeral. He wrote, "because of you, I am a hero's son."
10-4, Keith.
And New York will always remember.
John Finucane, a retired FDNY Lieutenant, serves as Chairman for the Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial.
Hundreds of firefighters and family members of rescue workers who died on September 11 packed the Tribeca Performing Arts Center on May 28, urging the members of the jury selecting a 9/11 memorial that the design must list the affiliations of rescue workers who died in the World Trade Center attacks. Some, holding up signs that said, "They went in together, let them stay together," said that the firefighters who died should be listed together with the members of their company, not listed alphabetically.
"If it wasn't for them, you would need twice as much space for a memorial because there would be twice as many victims," said Chris Ganci, whose father, Chief of the Fire Department Pete Ganci, died on 9/11.
Other victim's family members said the memorial should not show some victims as more worthy of recognition. "Please ensure that the truth of the day is told, honestly and equally," Julie Boryczewski, whose younger brother, a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, died on 9/11, told the jury. "Once separations are made, integrity is lost within the whole."
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's guidelines say that the memorial should "honor the loss of life equally and the contributions of all without establishing any hierarchies," but the memorial competition's rules do not specifically bar designers from including a victim's job, rank or title.
Others at the hearing told jury members to use different criteria when chosing a design. Carl Weisbrod, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York and a development corporation board member, said that the jury should chose a design that brings Daniel Libeskind's plan for a sunken memorial space up to street level.
The deadline for registering to enter the design competition was May 29. Over 13,000 people registered, more than any design competition in history. They will have until June 30 to submit their designs, and the jury will spend the rest of the summer evaluating them.
"I would urge the jury to prefer designs that really go the extra mile in creating ways for future visitors to experience each of these individual people," said Michael Kuo, a victim's family member who works at Imagine New York, "so that they can know how special my father was, and how special everyone who was lost was."
On September 11th, I was standing in front of P.S. 234, where my eight-year-old son is a student, when the World Trade Center was attacked a few blocks away. Suddenly the neighborhood where I had lived for 16 years became nothing resembling a place to live. As the only person on the new Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation who actually lives in Lower Manhattan, I see part of my job as representing my neighbors and helping to make the neighborhood around "Ground Zero" better than ever.
I was one of the lucky residents. I was evacuated from my home for only five days, because they thought the gas lines in the building might blow up.
At least 30,000 of the 50,000 residents were displaced in those first few days and weeks. Three months after the attacks, nobody knows exactly how many are still displaced, since many people have decided to move out permanently, but a rough estimate would be 6,000.
Twenty five percent of the children are in group counseling. Some have been moved to other schools where there are 80 children in a classroom.
People have lost so much. They would like to stay downtown, but they need support. There's been tremendous resilience, but there's also been tremendous trauma. People are still very nervous, very afraid, very unsettled.
The city has not been very helpful. If you walk along Pier 25 on West Street, you can see 15 to 20 trucks idling, the debris in the back uncovered. Much of that debris contains asbestos. A crane picks up the debris and drops it on to a barge, which also disperses dust and asbestos into the air.
This is a 24-hour-a-day operation. It happens right next to Stuyvesant High School where there are 3,500 students and the Borough of Manhattan Community College where there are 15,000 students. Across the street, 5,000 people live in Independence Plaza and the surrounding buildings.
We are trying to get it closed between midnight and six a.m., so the thousands of people living nearby can get some sleep. The workers want it to happen. The construction companies want it to happen. But the city's Office of Emergency Management has been unresponsive.
The clean-up began as an emergency effort. But we are no longer in an emergency, so there is no reason we cannot improve the process of the clean up.
We have asked them to put the material in closed containers at the site, so less debris is released into the air as it is transported. We are trying to get the cranes and trucks to use low sulfur fuel. We have asked that a net be put on the side of Stuyvesant High School to keep the debris from coming into the building. The site where the debris is loaded from trucks onto a barge, should also be moved further north toward Canal Street, where there are fewer residents. Setting up this new site would take nine days to complete, but would greatly improve life for those in the area.
Stuyvesant High School is still the only school in the area near the World Trade Center that has reopened. The teachers and the students came back with the understanding that there would be a new air filtration system put in and that the schools could hire their own air quality testers. Months later, these things still have not happened. Several parents wanted to transfer their students elsewhere temporarily, especially those who have respiratory ailments, but the Board of Education said that if they do not return, the students will be discharged from the school permanently.
We have to prepare our other schools for reuse before the students return. That means cleaning them and putting in new air filtration systems to keep dust and asbestos from coming back into the building. We also have to deal with the psychological aspects of bringing children back to a school that they were evacuated from. The children in the area saw the towers fall. Now we have to make them feel as at home as possible.
Community Board 1 is also the only one in New York City without an indoor recreation facility. Our grassy fields have been paved over as part of the clean up. The pier that was an outdoor recreation center that was used for summer camps and after-school programs is now being used as a dump. As a temporary solution, there is a proposal to put a temporary bubble to be built on city land that can be used as recreation until development begins again in the area.
Streets all over the area are being torn up for new telephone, gas, and electricity lines. There is going to have to be a whole new infrastructure underground. We are asking for a reasonable reconstruction plan so the digging is done in a coordinated fashion. Often now, a street is dug up by one agency, covered up, and then dug up the next day by another agency. We need a plan that lets members of the community use the streets and get some sleep.
Madelyn Wils is the chair of Community Board 1 and a member of the newly appointed Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation.
Click here to read Etta Sanders' "Living Near Ground Zero"