They already removed the WTC Cross for a second time a couple of weeks ago. I work across the street, and I spoke to a construction worker about it. She said that the City was claiming it would be returned as part of the permanent memorial, but since the Cross is not in the memorial's plans, this is BS.
Athiest groups in NY have been complaining about it for three years now. They successfully got it removed for a few weeks in '04 but the FDNY forced its return. It is doubtful that they will be able to do this again.
The staircase, and the cross are both important symbols of what happened that day, and of the resiliance that NYers showed in the aftermath. As usual, they will be swept under the rug in the interest of offending no one but white Christians. Those are the rules these days in this country.
Well, you can't really compare the two.
Has nobody wondered out loud where a few dozen atheists get all this political muscle, that two or three million Catholic New Yorkers -- and that's just the Catholics -- can't get their arms around? As if none of the FDNY, NYPD, EMS, and NYPA people who died that day were Catholics, or Christians.
Sounds like it's time somebody called a guy who knows a guy.