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Whoops! I cut myself off.

I think non-representationl monuments are appropriate for events that are too big and complext to compartmentalize. I think that is what give the Vietnam memorial such a grip on the American population. Another good example, IMHO, are the empty chairs at the OKC memorial and the "pool of names" at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery. 09/11 was too big and too painful to be easily summed up in a traditional architectural statement. A broken, melted bit of steel won't do it justice, regardless of the shape of that steel. 09/11 deserves an eloquent monument which is as compelling as the Vietnam memorial and as expressive of grief as the OKC chairs.

I've seen the Vietnam Memorial once. At the time I was a cocky little snot (as opposed to the cock big snot that I've since become) and I could not appreciate it as I should have.

I personally prefer simplicity, I would prefer a memorial with a relatively simplistic design rather than one that tries to incorporate every element potentially linked to the disaster. I find scatterings of various individual imagery to be a bit gaudy, and I think that simplicity is itself appropriate for any memorial situation.

The difference is that there are artifacts of 9-11 that the shocked and grieving citizens of this country have latched onto...that the citizens of other countries have latched onto as well.

The flag: Britain, Canada and Australia (I'm still a little shocked at this) ESPECIALLY Britain, had the American flag flying on their desks and on their websites and on their homes...as a tribute not only to those who were killed in the attacks, but to that flag - the one everyone signed - which they had seen so many times on television and had come to associate, in their own minds, with freedom, and of the simple human unity which MOST of the world felt in the wake of such an atrocity. That beat up, signed piece of cloth which contains the thoughts and feelings of those most immediately affected should be preserved for posterity at the site upon which it first took hold upon the hearts and minds of humanity.

That cross. Well...for the same reasons. Rewriting this stuff brings it all back in living sound and color to me...

Anyhow, I'm tryng to say that certain sentimental symbols of 9-11 have already taken the hearts and minds of humanity regarding 9-11. They should be preserved...with an inclusion of the photograph park which memorializes the spot in OKC where so many died. I'd like to see the spotlights kept as well. The whole deal. Every artifact from ground zero, which has been mentioned on this thread has been deeply imprinted in the hearts and minds of the world.

In future generations, let them continue to look, as they do now and think, as they do now "That could heve been me. That could have been my country." Let history stand unchanged. Lest we forget.