NYT: From the Ashes - At ground zero, we are making progress... he, he

Sometimes... the most important quality an architect can possess is optimism. For example, it took 12 years for the Jewish Museum I designed in Berlin to finally open to the public. A few hours later it had to close. The date: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. That jarring confluence of events not only predated but also presaged my role in rebuilding ground zero. And the memories of what we went through in Berlin give me confidence that we will succeed in New York as well.

When I won the museum competition, Berliners were divided between those who felt my design would represent the new Germany and others who found it too prominent and unsuitable. Many said the building would never be built. Once it was built, the naysayers said it would never be occupied. When the exhibitions were installed, they said no one would come....

We persevered through seven governments, six name changes, five culture ministers, four museum directors, three mayors, two sides of a wall and one unification - with zero regrets. I was called naïve, foolishly optimistic and worse. Today, of course, the same charges echo in New York. Critics stress that it has been nearly four years since the attacks and claim that little progress has been made. They are wrong.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, chaos gave way to grief, which eventually turned into a burning determination to do the right thing - for the victims, the families, the city, the nation. Yet what was the right thing? Rebuild the twin towers? Preserve the 16 acres as an empty field of memory?... A second planning effort, international in reach and wide-ranging in scope, led to a spectacular display of finalists at the rebuilt Winter Garden. I was fortunate enough to be selected as the winner....

TAKE BACK THE MEMORIAL: HEAT'S ON
By Michelle Malkin · June 23, 2005 09:47 AM

The battle over Ground Zero continues, and the public relations master for the Blame America side is losing his cool.

- Check out this must-see segment from the O'Reilly Factor Tuesday night in which Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade describes an off-air confrontation between 9/11 family member Debra Burlingame--who blew the whistle on the plans to Soros-ize Ground Zero--and Dick Tofel, president of the planned International Freedom Center.

- Note the call yesterday by NYC councilman Alan Gerson to put a freeze on construction of the IFC and built it somewhere else:

"The families have raised legitimate questions as to whether or not that type of museum should be in the memorial quadrant," said Councilman Alan Gerson. "We should put the Freedom Center Museum briefly on hold. We need to rethink this before we proceed," Gerson told The [New York] Post following a hearing on Ground Zero reconstruction.

- And read today's NYPost editorial blasting Tofel's spin:

Richard Tofel, president of the Inter national Freedom Center, went on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" Tuesday to answer, yet again, charges that the IFC will be a forum for America-bashing.
But his on-air claims contradicted his recent, seemingly reassuring, Wall Street Journal article on the topic. And his off-air behavior afterwards raised even more questions about his judgment.

No wonder so many folks don't trust the project.

No wonder folks like City Councilman Alan Gerson are demanding that the project be put on hold.

Tofel simply doesn't speak straight.

Exactly what Debra Burlingame has warned us all along.

- Take Back the Memorial continues to follow the latest developments. More than 11,000 have signed the website petition to keep politics out of Ground Zero.

Keep the heat on. They're starting to sweat.

***

Update: Just noticed this statement about the 9/11 memorial from NY George Pataki buried in the New York Times...

"No one is going to turn it into something that is a negative statement about America and our belief in freedom, so long as I am governor of this state."

They're listening.

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