NYC to build Mosque at WTC site

OK, I made that up, but stick with me on this.

If I was to tell you that on the site of the crash of Flight 93 they were going to build a memorial in the shape of the Islamic Star and Crescent, would you tell me that I should have gone to snopes.com? Would you tell me that I get my news from ScrappleFace and TheOnion?

Well, what do you see here?

That my friends, is the memorial planned for the site. Notice the imagery? They even got the star position right position relative to the crescent moon. You know, the same one as the Ottoman Empire, Pakistan, Tunisia, etc – etc – etc?? The balance of Islamofascists organizations use this Islamic symbol as well. Is this not known by, well, EVERYONE SINCE 9/11!!!

Four years after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a reclaimed strip mine near Shanksville, Somerset County, on Sept. 11, 2001, the design that will serve as the national memorial was unveiled here yesterday in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hall of Flags.

"Crescent of Embrace" will feature a Tower of Voices, containing 40 wind chimes -- one for each passenger and crew member who died -- and two stands of red maple trees that will line a walkway caressing the natural bowl shape of the land. Forty separate groves of red and sugar maples will be planted behind the crescent, and a black slate wall will mark the edge of the crash site, where the remains of those who died now rest.

This is complete madness. Like a lot of these things it boils down to one or two things:

1. The designers, politicians, and judges are completely ignorant rubes who were not homeschooled by Anne and therefore have no knowledge of history, symbols and propriety.

2. The designers knew exactly what they were doing and the politicians, judges and citizens are so paralyzed by political correctness and afraid of being called nasty names that they cannot and will not stop this affront to decency.

I don’t buy #1. Say what you want about the designer’s politics, but they are not ignorant and uneducated. My next travel claim is on #2.

Let’s take this another step.

Why don’t the Germans take their holocaust memorial in Berlin; and instead of the sublime wave form they have now, why don’t they just have a big swastika? The Germans are good at it, including trees, why not? Remember the trees?

Hey, let’s not pick on the Germans. We have our own memorial. Why don’t we just make this little adjustment to ours? Here, I won’t even charge for the design work.

If this thing sounds like some woolly-headed Liberal’s idea, well go no further than the head of the architectural firm that won the competition, Paul Murdoch.

PHILOSOPHY

“A primary task of this generation is to create new patterns of development that sustain human habitation on this planet. Towards this end, the principles adopted for our practice are intended to ensure that each project contributes to an overall goal of environmental responsibility while striving for design excellence.

As architects, we are uniquely qualified to help formulate and translate policy into tangible form; mitigating pressures of urbanity with the need to heal the natural environment. Each design solution is seen as a contribution to the human condition; as it exists today and evolves into future generations.

Our goal is to define and study problems both in terms of clients’ direct needs and relative to long term effects on natural and man made surroundings. More than problem solving however, we aspire to emotionally affect and uplift our lives through poetry and beauty.

It is through these transcendent qualities that we optimistically strive for ways to enrich life and fulfill our original purpose for engaging in the practice of architecture.”

That speaks for itself….but as Momma Salamander would say: gobbledygook.

Shame to all involved in this. And yes, I mean the family members that signed off KNOWINGLY on this as well. No one is immune to criticism. Not the President, not Miss Piggy – no one.

BTW, if you want to learn more about the winner of the monument competition, read the comments from the hat tip to LGF.

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For those who need more visual aids about the Flight 93 memorial, go here, here, and here.

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UPDATE: Required reading for more info at CAPT Ed, Ace, and Michelle.

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UPDATE II: Electric Boogaloo: One thing I will give the (majority I am sure) good people that designed and worked on the execution side of the design; it is beautiful and striking. I encourage everyone to go here and see for yourself (I recommend the Slide Show).

But.....we all need to go back to Vince Lombardi on this - fundamentals here people, fundamentals. The base foundation concept for this is fatally flawed; therefore the whole project is tainted and ruined. I really don't like to go back to Nazi symbology, but the swastikahas a long history with Indo-European and Siberian-American peoples - past recorded history. You can make the most beautiful, well designed, superbly sublime and breathtaking memorial ever created, but in the 21st Century if it is shaped like a swastika the meaning and art is going to be lost. Sump'n to think about.

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