Mark Steyn: Windmills of Your Mindlessness [Flight 93 memorial]

NRO ^ | February 13, 2009 | Mark Steyn

[Tolik]

The "war on terror" went away with George W. Bush, but there's still a postscript here and there to be attended to. If you're one of the dwindling band of Americans interested in the Flight 93 memorial, this exchange with the presiding honchos of the "Circle of Embrace" (formerly the "Crescent of Embrace") makes for glum reading:

“In your depiction, who is breaking the circle?”

“The passengers and crew,” said [Memorial Project Manager] Reinbold.

“But the circle is a symbol of peace,” Rawls continued. “Who broke the peace? It was the TERRORISTS who broke the peace on 9/11.”

Reinbold countered that that the circle is also a Druid symbol, and a Christian symbol.

“But it is still a symbol of peace,” said Rawls, especially as the Memorial Project is using it, with the circle being broken on 9/11, “so who breaks it?”

“It was the passengers and crew,” [Deputy Superintendent] Newlin repeated, elaborating that: “They are the one’s who brought the plane down.”

“You don’t think it was the terrorists who broke the peace?” Rawls asked.

“They TRIED to break the peace,” said Newlin, “but they failed.”

“Really?” asked Rawls: “They failed to break the peace? What about the 40 murdered heroes?” But Reinbold and Newlin were done talking.

I've no idea whether the conversation is accurate in all its particulars: It seems perversely obtuse, even for the midwives of this wretched memorial. But let's not get into the weeds of what the "circle" means. To wind up chasing these guys through the circles in their circles and the wheels within their wheels is to lose sight of why "Let's roll!" wound up as a Crescent roll. There shouldn't be any limpid circle of effete hand-wringing in the first place. It's not what this thing was about. As James Lileks wrote here a couple of years back:

If 9/11 had really changed us, there’d be a 150-story building on the site of the World Trade Center today. It would have a classical memorial in the plaza with allegorical figures representing Sorrow and Resolve, and a fountain watched over by stern stone eagles. Instead there’s a pit, and arguments over the usual muted dolorous abstraction approved by the National Association of Grief Counselors. The Empire State Building took 18 months to build. During the Depression. We could do that again, but we don’t. And we don’t seem interested in asking why.

9/11 was Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle Raid on the same morning—Flight 93 serving as the latter. If the stone eagles aren't an option, I'd rather see Todd Beamer, Thomas Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham, and the other forgotten heroes of 93 in the pose from that Incredibles poster below with "LET'S ROLL!" chiseled in ka-powie Marvel Comics Jack Kirby lettering. Their story is one of action, not limp enfeebled passivity. Which says more about America today? What those guys did? Or how our culture chooses to memorialize them?

[Tolik]

mind boggling!

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Moral Clarity BUMP !

[FlashBack]

Steyn is a great writer...always great as a pinch-hitter for Rush/Hannity too!!

[mojito]

So depressing.

What has happened to us?

[Congressman Billybob]

This limp-wristed approach to the Islamofascists will surely get more Americans killed. I spit on Americans who are this stupid and self-destructive. See below.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "Offending the Islamofascists"

The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.

[Tolik]

Mark Steyn’s stuff is here!

[steve8714]

One of these guys has to be an architect or an artist.

[Tallguy]

Depressing... It’s hard not to think that America’s best days are behind her when you read stuff like this. And I agree with Steyn. If we were still ‘great’ the World Trade Center towers would have been rebuilt to their former glory by now. It’s not even on the radar screen.

[Red Boots]

Nobody should ever go there. Instead we should make our own memorial, nearby, in our own way, and everyone should go there. Set up a national shrine, or whatever occurs when people go there, that is completely outside the government. What do they have to do with it anyway ?

[chimera]

I'm with you and James Lileks on this one. Right after 9/11 happened and there was this seemingly endless wrangling over what to do with that site, I said the very best “memorial” would have been to rebuild what was there before, bigger and better. But we're going on 10 years after and all we have to show is a lousy hole in the ground, and a blizzard of paperwork going back and forth between lawyers, politicians, and bean counters. As soon as that site was cleared, the steelwork for new towers should have been going up. Instead, we've pissed it all away.

[Tolik]

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but if he got the bid, it would had been done long time ago.

[livius]

This is insane. Who is “Newlin,” anyway?

[livius]

Ah, Newlin is a Deputy Park Superintendent. He’s either dumb as a post or a Muslim convert.

[Arkady]

A few points:
Steyn and Lileks are awesome.
Add in the horrid memorial in AZ.
There are currently hundreds of replies to posts on this same page about stupid comments by janeane garofalo and some story about boomer navel-gazing but only a dozen on this one.
Shame on freepers.
That these memorials have been hijacked should be rallying points and something we can do something about. Build them back, build them right and at least give them the same amount of attention.
What, not as sexy as the umpteenth story about pregnant moms or arlen specter?

[kellynla]

BTTT

[the OlLine Rebel]

“Which says more about America today? What those guys did? Or how our culture chooses to memorialize them?”

Unfortunately, cynic that I am, the latter says more. We have to really have our chips down, and our face against the wall, before we really do anything of strength and courage anymore.

I REALLY have to visit Shanksville before they put this monstrosity in place. My aunt/uncle live only an hour from there and we visit sometimes. When we next go, we should go out to Shanksville before it’s ruined.

Thanks for the note. Didn’t know they’ve changed the name to try to hide some more - “circle”.

[the OlLine Rebel]

“Add in the horrid memorial in AZ.”

Huh???

[toothfairy86]

Does smearing it with bacon grease constitute vandalism? I live about an hour away from it. It may require a road trip in the near future.