9/11 Memorial Service Moved From Ground Zero Without Consulting The 9/11 Families

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9/11 Memorial Service Moved From Ground Zero Without Consulting The 9/11 Families

Very sad, and infuriating at the same time. Just today two more victims were discovered.



The families respond...

Governor Spitzer, Attn: Marlene Turner
Mayor Bloomberg, Attn: Commissioner Nazli Parvizi, NYCAU
Via Email and Fax
July 16, 2007

Dear Governor Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg,

We have just learned of the City’s plans for the six anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While we support your decision to have first responders read the names of the 9/11 dead, we ask that you reconsider the decision to relocate the annual 9/11 commemorative events from Ground Zero to Zuccotti Park.

For five years, families of 9/11 victims have gathered at the World Trade Center site to stand on sacred ground, and mourn the men, women, and children murdered in the worst attack on U.S. soil in our nation’s history. For us, and many Americans around the nation, the World Trade Center site is sacred ground. The ongoing discoveries of human remains at the site remind us of the brutality of the attacks and confirm its sacredness.

Nearly half of the victims’ families have no private place to grieve because no earthly remains of their loved ones have been recovered. Each year, despite the emotional pain, victims’ families put their lives on hold to attend the annual commemoration at the World Trade Center site. Some travel from across the nation, others from around the world, to gather at the place where their loved ones died. They have descended to the footprints at bedrock to pay tribute, as the names of the victims were read.

Ongoing construction—without any details—has been identified as the reason for the relocation. While we support the revitalization of the site, is it so terrible to stop construction for 1/2 day so that fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, friends and fellow citizens can respectively gather to remember and honor their fallen loved ones? We also fear this relocation raises legitimate safety and security concerns.

How will the thousands of mourners physically be able to gather at Zuccotti Park? Will the adjacent streets be closed to accommodate attendees? How will access to the ceremony be afforded? Will there be any form of access to the World Trade Center site on the anniversary of the attacks?

We welcome and appreciate the opportunity to discuss these concerns with you and your staff directly.

Sincerely,

Bruce DeCell, 9/11 Families for a Secure America

Bill Doyle, Doyle 9/11 Support Network

Anthony Gardner, World Trade Center United Family Group, Inc.

Kurt and Diane Horning, WTC Families for Proper Burial, Inc.

Jim McCaffrey, Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial

Dennis McKeon, Where to Turn, Put it Above Ground

Margie Miller, 9/11 Long Island Families

Sally Regenhard, 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims, and The Skyscraper Safety Campaign

Patricia Reilly, Coalition of 9/11 Families

Feel free to let Gov. Spitzer, and Mayor Bloomberg know that you want to remember our fallen citizens at the place they were murdered.

Eliot Spitzer
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
518-474-8390

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
FAX (212) 788-8123

E-MAIL:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

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9/11 CEREMONY

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07192007...ndy_soltis.htm

By ANDY SOLTIS

July 19, 2007 -- For the first time since 9/11, the annual memorial ceremony for victims of the terrorist attacks will not be held at the World Trade Center site, because of its redevelopment, officials announced yesterday.

The ceremony, which includes the reading of the names of those who died, will take place instead in nearby Zuccotti Park, at Liberty Street between Broadway and Church Street. Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg notified relatives of victims by letter last week of plans for the sixth anniversary.

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FURY AT 9/11 'DOWNSIZING'

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202007...an_edelman.htm

By SUSAN EDELMAN

July 20, 2007 -- Families of 9/11 victims yesterday denounced a decision to relocate this year's anniversary ceremony from Ground Zero to a small park because of construction at the former World Trade Center site.

"They want to downsize 9/11," Bill Doyle, whose son Joseph died in the terror attacks, fumed in a call to The Post.

Officials revealed the move to Zuccotti Park, southeast of Ground Zero, in announcing that responders would read the names of New York City's victims at this year's commemoration. In the past, thousands have gathered at Ground Zero for the annual reading.

"Is it so terrible to stop construction for a half-day so that fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, friends and fellow citizens can respectively gather to remember and honor their fallen loved ones?" a letter from family groups to Gov. Spitzer and Mayor Bloomberg asked.

"For us, and many Americans around the nation, the World Trade Center site is sacred ground."

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Kin balk at 9/11 anniversary ceremony
Boycott threat over move from WTC site

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007..._ceremony.html

BY BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, July 20th 2007, 4:00 AM

Officials are moving this year's 9/11 memorial service from Ground Zero to a small park nearby, drawing threats of a boycott from some victims' relatives.

Eleven family groups sent Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Spitzer a letter this week that blasts them for relocating the annual ceremony because of construction without consulting them.

"For us, and many Americans around the nation, the World Trade Center site is sacred ground," the groups' letter reads.

"Is it so terrible to stop construction for 1/2 day so that the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, friends and fellow citizens can respectively gather to remember and honor their fallen loved one?"

The letter was in response to one Bloomberg and Spitzer sent to families July 11, informing them that, "due to the ongoing redevelopment," the commemoration will be held at Zuccotti Park, which encompasses about three-quarters of an acre on Liberty St. at Broadway.

Diane Horning, president of WTC Families for Proper Burial, said she's so upset she and her husband have decided to skip the ceremony.

"The whole thing to me is wrong," said Horning, whose son, Matthew, died in the attacks. "I don't know why it can't be on what many consider is sacred ground. There may be a legitimate reason, I don't know because they've never bothered to sit down and talk to us about it."

Anthony Gardner of the World Trade Center United Family Group said Bloomberg and Spitzer have yet to respond to the letter, which was sent Tuesday.

Gardner, whose brother, Harvey, was killed in the 2001 attacks, said he finds it hard to believe there is not enough space at the 16-acre twin towers site to accommodate the thousands of mourners, who come from across the country.

"They always try to put us in a position where we're reacting to something that they're doing, which makes it seem like we're complaining or are never satisfied. That's not the reality," Gardner said. "The reality is we've tried to be a part of things."

First responders to the terrorist attack are to read victims' names at the sixth anniversary ceremony.