The swastika adds a nice touch..
Posted on 09/12/2011 6:47:47 PM PDT by Fitzy_888
GANSEVOORT — There’s been a great deal of debate about the ideal location for Tempered by Memory, the 25-foot-tall sculpture made from World Trade Center steel.
Some feel the sculpture should be placed on the lawn of the Saratoga Springs Visitor Center, others at the Lake Avenue firehouse, and others think it doesn’t belong in Saratoga Springs at all.
For one day, however, the debate stopped.
Saratoga Arts held a private ceremony in Gansevoort Sunday to recognize the efforts of volunteers and donors who made the sculpture possible. Those honored included sculptors John Van Alstine and Noah Savett, local iron workers and crane operators who helped leverage the massive pieces of steel into position, and those who donated money to the cause.
The ceremony was held on the grounds of Savett’s steel company, where the sculpture has been sitting since it was completed in early July. It was supposed to be unveiled in Saratoga Springs Sunday, but the city couldn’t decide on an appropriate location for the sculpture.
“We’ve had some bumps in the road,” said Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson, who has formed a 13-member committee that will help decide where the sculpture will be placed. “We’ll get through that in short order.”
Before the ceremony, Van Alstine said he felt like the sculpture was missing its moment by not being dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But Johnson’s comments about his commitment to getting the sculpture placed in the right location gave the sculptors a change of heart.
“Wherever it ends up,” Savett said, “it’ll be a powerful memorial to 9/11.”
Members of the Gansevoort Volunteer Fire Department, which served as the color guard for Sunday’s ceremony, echoed that sentiment.
Assistant Chief Bruce Livingston said the sculpture humbled him.
The sheer magnitude of the sculpture, he said, made him think about what kind of raw power it’d take to completely mangle a piece of steel. He then said he thought about “how much loss accompanies that,” especially the firefighters who died running up the steps of the World Trade Center “trying to save that one or two last people in the towers.”
Though he didn’t know them personally, Gansevoort Fire Department President Wayne Palmer said he still considers the 343 firefighters killed that day his brothers.
“It really touches the heart to know that there’s still people out there willing to pay homage to the thousands lost,” Palmer said.
One of those people is poet Joan Murray, who wrote a poem about the Tempered by Memory sculpture with inspiration from local iron worker Pete Mienaltowski, who helped create the sculpture.
“Those are I-beams,” Mienaltowski said, gesturing toward the sculpture. “Look at them now. They look like flattened plates.”
Like the firefighters, Mienaltowski said he felt a personal connection to the sculpture. The impact knocked the fireproofing off the steel, he said, so the iron workers were able to tell exactly what floor the steel pieces came from at the time of the attack. It’s an anecdote that is featured prominently in Murray’s poem, which she read aloud during the ceremony.
Another is the symbolism of the iron workers and sculptors physically raising the steel up again, as it once laid underneath ash, paper and broken glass in the rubble at ground zero.
“They’ve taken it and made something elegant and symbolic that’s reaching up,” Murray said.
Gansevoort firefighter Spencer Kilburn agreed.
“Astonished,” Kilburn, 17, said in regard to his initial thoughts upon seeing the sculpture. “Amazed they could turn a total catastrophe into a piece of art.”
Even with pictures and video, none of them really show what the thing looks like.
In one shot it looks like someone running a vacuum cleaner.
The swastika adds a nice touch..
What swastika?
Oops, sorry. Iron cross. I gotta wake up before I post.
Yeah, looks a bit like my VFW pin. Those ol’ boys would want to have a word with anyone calling it a “swastika” :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.