That has to be a hard thing not to do, though. Among the 3000 dead, all it takes is one leftwinger to threaten to sue and win, and if he does, the others feel like chumps. They have to sign on, too. I don't blame them, I don't know what else their alternatives were, other than to watch leftwingers benefit while they didn't. They had to get on the bandwagon if one leftist was initiating a lawsuit. Otherwise the leftist would get money and they wouldn't. I can't heap too much judgment on them for that just because of the group dynamic.
That said, I think the dead should be recovered to the extent possible, no one should be endangered recovering the dead, the economic life of the city should not shut down, the bathtub should not be broken and the city flooded just to recover the remains and the skyscrapers should be built. The one thing that should not happen is that dynamic, unique lower Manhattan be turned into a disgusting tourist meadow with no economic activity just as the terrorists wanted, turning Manhattan into a New York version of a taliban cave.
One other thing - due to the nature of New York, where people come from other countries and live their dreams - there wouldn't be no economic activity except by decree. The chiclet sellers and tourist trinket makers would be fully in business, doing a brisk business at that, making THAT the economic activity of lower Manhattan instead of the great activity that was happening. Afghanistan is loaded with chiclet sellers and trinker hawkers, that's the level of economic activity that goes on over there. To turn the capital of capitalism into a trinket-selling mecca, despite the idea that it would be a meadow, is to misunderstand the nature of New York and what it is and always will be.
In short, either you can have Goldman Sachses and Deutsche banks, moving the great capital financing around the world and launching new businesses and powering the efficient use of money so that everyone can have a retirement account, or you can have chiclet sellers selling tourist trinkets.
The idealists might THINK they can ensure no chiclet sellers as they envision their talibanic meadows but that is unrealistic, given the nature of New York, the INHERENT nature of New York with all its huckster and immigrants and people on the move. They will find a way to make money off it. They can have goldman saches or they can have trinket hawkers because no matter what is decided, economic activity will continue to buzz. It is human nature.
Do you hear what you are saying? As long as someone else writes the ransom note it's ok to share in the booty? Sorry I don't buy it. Not everyone signed on.