Visitors' civil comments encouraged.
The 9/11 Memorial the Media Largely Ignores
There is a beautiful memorial to the victims of 9/11 in Bayonne Harbor, New Jersey, just across from the Statue of Liberty. Its beauty is reflected in its art as well as its very human and enduring sentiment. It is a testament to the will of humanity to persevere over those that would destroy us, and it was given to the people of the United States by the people of Russia.(That's a photo of the memorial on the left.) Our media true to form has been too busy reporting on the trash they find important to make us aware of this treasure, which as usual does not serve our interests or the public good.
This impressive memorial “To the Struggle against World Terrorism” (often called "TEAR DROP") was given to us by the Russians to honor those who died in 9/11, and it is a grand statement against terrorism. The monument is also known as the "The Tear of Grief," "The Teardrop Memorial," and "The Memorial at Harbor View Park." It is the work of world-renowned Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who reportedly spent close to $12 million of his own money to produce, and help cover the shipping and assembly of the memorial on its American site.
Tsereteli, the 1996 UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, was in his Moscow home on the morning of September 11th, getting ready for work, when he turned on the television and witnessed the Twin Towers attack. He saw the towers collapse, and like many of us was moved to tears. The Russian artist went to work driving on a route that passed the American Embassy. People were gathered outside the gates to pay their sympathies. He witnessed people crying, and in a moment of creative energy decided on the spot to create a memorial that focused on the image of a tear.
Shortly after, Tsereteli went to ground zero. It was there that he decided that his memorial to the victims would not be built on the remains of the dead. During his site search, he found out that boats were used on 9/11 to shuttle survivors away, and he learned that New Jersey residents worked in the towers. Tsereteli looked for a waterfront site in New Jersey, and selected Bayonne Harbor, a one-time military instillation that was to be converted into a public park-space.
In his memorial to the victims of 9/11, the image of the tear serves a double purpose. It represents not only
sadness and grief over the senseless loss of innocent lives, but also the hope for a future free from terror. The monument focuses on a hundred foot bronze tower with a jagged split down its middle, where a 40-foot, 4-ton nickel teardrop hangs suspended in the middle.
The bron
ze tower stands on an eleven-sided black marble slab carved with the names of every person who perished in the September 11, 2001 terror attack, as well as the victims of the World Trade Center 1993 bombing. Nine pathways like the one pictured below lead to the 11-sided granite base, which is pictured on
the left with flowers laid in remembrance of the dead. The memorial has several mirror-like elements, so that visitors can see themselves reflected in it. The tear is shiny and reflective, as are the granite name plates.
On September 16, 2005, there was a Groundbreaking Ceremony for the monument “To the Struggle against World Terrorism”. The keynote speaker was Vladimir Putin, then President of the Russian Federation and the first world leader to call President Bush after 9/11 to express his sympathies. In his remarks, Putin noted that Russia had experienced the grief of terrorism. He was of course speaking of the siege of the Beslan school by 32 Chechnya terrorists that resulted in the deaths of over 350 people, many of them young students and women. Speaking at the site where the monument would be installed, with the Statue of Liberty behind him, President Putin said:
“...Four years ago, the terrorists intended to plunge America and the civilized world into chaos, but they have failed. On the contrary, mankind united. We have made an efficient international anti- terrorist coalition…We defeated Nazism and together we will win a victory over terrorism. This monument, in memory of victims of the September 11th attacks, will serve as a symbol of Russian American unity against world terrorism.”
On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of 9/11, the 175-ton monument was dedicated. President William Jefferson Clinton was the keynote speaker. The former president has a well deserved reputation for eloquence, and so I include most of his address here:
"...Our memories mark this day far more than any words can. Senator Menendez said 9/11 gave us a moment of national and global unity all together too rare in these contentious times. It was a moment when we all knew that our common humanity is far, far more important than any differences we have.
My prayer is that today we might recover some sense of that unity to finish the tasks that lay before us in the ashes of the World Trade Center, in the gaping wound of the Pentagon, and in that lonely field in Pennsylvania, by supporting the families of those killed and the injured, by improving our defenses, and by holding the terrorists accountable in the global world with more partners and fewer terrorists....
Today we should agree across party regional, religious, racial and philosophical lines that we must together finish the job that 9/11 and all those sacrifices left us with. We must finally implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. We must allocate the funds from homeland security based on real risks, not political pork. We must ensure genuine, complete and total intelligence sharing and adequate funding for the unmet needs of homeland defense, including cargo container inspections, and the development of responses to things like those liquid bombs that were planned to come from London and destroy planes heading for America....
The second thing I think we should all agree on is to support whatever steps our government needs to take to insure the success of the moderate Muslim democracy in Afghanistan, a government now again under threat from the Taliban, and a government now unable to control the rise of poppy growing in the countryside, which went up 60% last year. This could be a calamitous consequence of our efforts to fight terror on many fronts. The NATO Commander General and Four Start Marine General Jones, one of the ablest people our military has produced in decades, said last week he needs more troops. I think the American people should tell the president, even if it costs more money, we would support giving more troops to Afghanistan. We must prevail there, we cannot let the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda come back, and if we have more troops finally it will enable us to intensify the hunt for Mr. Bin Laden and Dr. Al-Zawahri and the other leaders that remain at large.
This should not be a political issue. These two items should be American commitments. We owe it to the people here who suffered on 9/11 to finish the job.
Finally, we must remember what drove the suicide bombers and still drives their counterparts in the Middle East and across the world. They believed they were in full possession of the truth. They believed they would be rewarded by God for their self immolation, and they believed that anyone who did not share their truth, no matter how innocent or uninvolved, did not deserve to live because they were somehow less than human. This poisonous idea has led to the senseless murders all over the world of all kinds of people.
Let us not forget that not so long ago a man named Zarkaoui, before he was killed in the name of Al Qaeda, butchered hundreds of Muslims in Jordan, including little kids at a wedding reception. People have died in Bali, in Spain, in London, all across the world. Let us not forget at the World Trade Center, there were victims from over 70 other countries, including more than 200 other Muslims.
I will always remember when my daughter and I went down to the victim center (my wife had gone back to Washington to try and work on aid for New York) to deal with the aftermath and the consequences to the healthcare workers and the other rescue workers. We didn’t have anything to do so we just went down to the Victim Center to try to offer comfort. I saw this man in line, who was a head taller than me, weep. He was obviously an Arab. I said, “Did you lose someone”? He said, “No, I am just here to offer my condolences. I am an Egyptian Muslim American. I hate the terrorists even more than you do but I am so afraid my fellow Americans will never trust me again.”
…The business of 9/11 is not yet completed. You know it and I know it. We can have all of our differences,
we can argue our politics, but in the end we owe it to those who perished, to those who were wounded, to those who still are injured, to finish the job they left us with and to do it as one and in so doing to send one more signal to the world that the age old battle between our common humanity and our interesting differences, in the end, do not matter. No matter how many times they try, no matter even if they succeed again somewhere, in the end they will lose because we now know that God made us genetically over 99.9% the same and we know that every faith truly practiced honors the fact that we are all created as one. Let us remember that and honor those who were lost. God bless you all."
Love him or not, trust President Clinton to speak for the common good. Sincere thanks to the Russian people and to their "People's Artist", Zurab Tsereteli for giving us a remarkable, enduring remembrance of our history and our people, for placing it near Lady Liberty, and for standing with us in solidarity at one of our darkest hours. With the media we have; we need all the friends we can get.
We remember; we will never forget.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8231597.stm?lsf
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/a_beau_geste_the_911_tear_drop.html
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/06/25/070625ta_talk_finnegan
- BJinAmerica's blog
- Login or register to post comments
-
what a wondeful memorial for you to bring to our eyes. Tomorrow I'll post my memory of our NYU freshman, just 2 weeks into her dream life in NYC.
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
I can't wait to read it.
That was a very Interesting Story...
I'm assuming that things are great in the Pacific Northwest with you & the MRS, and that you too remember 9/11. As a police officer, you must have really related to what was happening on the ground with the search and recovery. (Cops often get criticized, but when there is an emeregency there is nothing better than knowing that they are responding and that help is on the way.)
There were so many heroes that day, and some of them died protecting others. Eternal be their memory.
Thank you for this wonderful post, BJ. We must never forget what happened on that fateful day. I know exactly what I was doing that morning of Sept. 11. I can still see it all in my mind so clearly. I think we all have the memory of this tragedy emblazoned in our minds. We must remember the victims of this horror and the heroes that risked their lives that day.
I never heard anything about the memorial given to us in memory of the victims by the people of Russia. You're so right...our media is "too busy reporting on the trash they find important." Thank you again, BJ.
Like you, I remember it like it was yesterday. The tragedy of it brought people around the world together; the world mourned 9/11.
When that first airplane hit its tower, I wanted to believe that something went horribly wrong, rather than think that there were people filled with so much hate that they could murder others without warning. I kept pushing the ugly truth from my mind until the second plane hit and there was no denying it.
As the day unraveled and we watched the towers collapse and the Pentagon burn, the day became seared in our memories. When we learned the facts of the brave United #93 passengers and crew, their stories became ours. From that day, the date of 9/11 became part of our history.
Like December 7, 1941, it is a day of infamy, but it is also a day marked by remembrance of those who perished and of those who worked to protect and save others. It became a day of remembrance that there are those who hate our freedoms because of their ideology and worse yet that their ideology would always make it that way.
(I've read that there is a documentary being released tomorrow that is going to stir up the political waters.)
I read the whole thing. Have tears in my eyes, from Putin's words(!) and Clinton's. And the monument itself. And none of us know about this - this is how we thank him for this gift? Give it no coverage in the MSM?
Thank you for putting this together.
and people don't know about it. I didn't hear one word about it on the 11th.
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
The videos are a wonderful addition to this diary. I hope that through word of mouth and postings on the Internet Americans will become familiar with this treasure. Tsereteli is a renowned artist, but I think he is also a very special human being. He and the Russian people should be recognized for this gift, just as France is for the Lady at the door.