TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL

*Every day more and more people sign our petition and the "big money" special interests behind the International Freedom Center are running scared! The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation announced that they are "taking one last look around" for alternative sites for the IFC and the Drawing Center. While this is likely a delaying tactic, make no mistake: that "one last look around" must continue until it results in the removal of the IFC and the Drawing Center from Ground Zero. We do not view this decision as "one last look around" - we view this as the last chance for the IFC and the Drawing Center to find a home. These magnets for controversy cannot remain there and we will not rest until they are removed. For more progress updates, see: One Down, One to Go? {http://takebackthememorial.org/?p=108} Eric Foner Quits as IFC Adviser {http://takebackthememorial.org/?p=110} * PETITION UPDATE *To date we have 38,500 signatures on the Take Back the Memorial petition, including almost 2,000 9/11 Family Members! We are making good progress but we need your help! Here are some things you can do: *SPREAD THE WORD AND HELP GATHER SIGNATURES! *Download the Petition Kit {http://takebackthememorial.org/?page_id=99} *GET YOUR COMMUNITY INVOLVED! *Participate in Campaign America {http://takebackthememorial.org/?page_id=107} *WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR *Take a few minutes to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and tell them about the plans to turn the memorial at ground zero into a political forum. Send them the link to Debra Burlingame's Wall Street Journal op-ed, The Great Ground Zero Heist {http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006791} and ask them to make your community aware of their plans. Also be sure to include a plea for readers to sign the petition! In addition to Debra Burlingame's op-ed, you can find more background information on Tom Bernstein, George Soros, and the LMDC by visiting our Frequently Asked Questions {http://takebackthememorial.org/?page_id=122} page. NY TIMES CALLS TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL & SUPPORTERS "UN-AMERICAN" A Sense of Proportion at Ground Zero {http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/opinion/29fri3.html} Editorial Published: July 29, 2005 in the New York Times Somewhere in the ill-conceived campaign to "take back the memorial" at ground zero, false impressions have managed to triumph over facts.

This week, Debra Burlingame, a board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, and others called for a boycott of fund-raising for the memorial until the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center have been banished from ground zero. She argues that money for the memorial will be intermingled with funds for the cultural building that is supposed to house the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center. This is both misleading and harmful to the memorial itself. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has pledged that its first priority is to build the memorial and create an endowment for it. Private donors are free to specify how they choose to have their money spent. The attacks on the International Freedom Center - and, more broadly, on the cultural component of Daniel Libeskind's master plan - make it all too easy to forget the existence of a Memorial Museum that is devoted wholly to the events of 9/11. Opponents of the Freedom Center, like Ms. Burlingame, claim that the Memorial Museum will be dwarfed by the cultural center. In fact, they overstate the size of the Snohetta building, which is being scaled back for other reasons, and they have exaggerated the floor space allotted there for the International Freedom Center. They also make it sound as if the Memorial Museum, which at 50,000 square feet is larger than the public spaces in the Whitney Museum, is somehow an afterthought relegated to the basement. It will be built underground, but that is because the 9/11 families asked to have access to the bedrock and to what remains of the foundation of the twin towers. To argue over the size of these two spaces is to assume that emotional power is solely the result of square footage. It is also to forget the profound effect that going to the roots of the World Trade Center will have on most visitors. But this is not really a campaign about money or space. It is a campaign about political purity - about how people remember 9/11 and about how we choose to read its aftermath, including the Iraq war. On their Web site, www.takebackthememorial.org {http://www.takebackthememorial.org}, critics of the cultural plan at ground zero offer a resolution called Campaign America. It says that ground zero must contain no facilities "that house controversial debate, dialogue, artistic impressions, or exhibits referring to extraneous historical events." This, to us, sounds un-American.

This unsigned editorial is actually by Gail Collins, the Editorial Board Editor for the New York Times. Not only does the Times smear us and YOU as "un-American" for demanding the 9/11 memorial remain about 9/11, they attack Debra Burlingame, conveniently forgetting to mention she is a 9/11 family member. In response, A. Forkum of Cox & Forkum Editorial {http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000634.html} cartoons writes: /They give themselves some wiggly room ("sounds to us"), but their point is clear: the NYT considers it "un-American" to oppose building a come-one-come-all political venue at the Ground Zero memorial. They continue blowing a "free speech" smoke screen to obscure the controversy: public funds are to be used to build a permanent institution at Ground Zero dedicated to airing political discourse, some of which will no doubt be sympathetic to the terrorists who murderer thousands there. Why else would the NYT be so concerned about "how people remember 9/11 and about how we choose to read its aftermath, including the Iraq war"? Is the NYT afraid that a memorial site dedicated solely to 9/11 will lead visitors to "politically incorrect" conclusions? / Please take a moment of your day to write a response of your own to their shameful editorial. Make sure to CC 911@takebackthememorial.org {mailto:911@takebackthememorial.org} and we will publish your letter {http://takebackthememorial.org/?page_id=127}, even if the Times does not. Letters to the Editor - letters@nytimes.com {mailto:letters@nytimes.com} Gail Collins, NY Times Editorial Board Editor - gailc@nytimes.com {mailto:gailc@nytimes.com} * IT'S A MEMORIAL *The family member letter this week is from Karen Lee, of Long Island, New York. She writes: /"My beloved husband of over 9 years, Richard Lee, age 34, Cantor Fitzgerald, was murdered on 9/11/01. He was kind, compassionate, brilliant, generous, caring — a joy to be around. He always thought of others first, at work and at home. Our son, only 22 months old at the time, was robbed of the most devoted, loving father anyone could wish for. What happened that day was not about left and right. It was about right and wrong." - Read The Rest {http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/Itisamemorial.html}/ 9/11 Families for a Safe & Secure America invites you to submit commentary for their /It's A Memorial/ series. - Lean More {http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/Page8.html} RADIO INTERVIEWS For those in the New York area, Debra Burlingame will be on WABC 77 AM radio, with Mark Levin, at 7:35 PM Eastern this Friday, August 5th. For those of you outside the New York City area, you can listen live to WABC 77 on your computer via streaming audio at http://www.wabcradio.com/listenlive.asp Listen {http://www.freepgs.com/wabc/showclips/072205/memorial.wma} to Jennie Farrell's appearance on the Mark Levin's WABC radio show. Jennie Farrell is the sister of James Marcel Cartier, killed in the collapse of the South Tower. Listen {http://limeshurbet.com/images/Gardner.07.05.mp3} to Anthony Gardner's appearance on WABC radio. Anthony Gardner is the Executive Director and Founder of the World Trade Center United Family Group. * ABOUT TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL For more information, please visit us on the web at: www.takebackthememorial.org

I can NOT believe that only 38,500 people have signed this petition. Do we Americans really want this anti-American CRAP displayed on this site? Can you imagine going to Pearl Harbor and seeing this kind of display?

Did everyone go back to sleep after we beat Kerry? Are we spent? Are we done?

What happened to the "Let's Roll!" spirit?

Please - if not for ourselves then at least let's do it for the children.

God bless you all for your efforts.

Thanks. I dunno maybe that's what they do with emails.
I just hope that the leftists are stopped.

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