Memorial At Ground Zero
To The Editor:

With recent newspaper articles and editorials decrying the lack of "progress" and vast "overruns" in cost in rebuilding at the World Trade Center site- after almost seven years- I made another "pilgrimage" from Bayside to Lower Manhattan this week to see what has changed since my last L.I.R.R.-and-subway-trip to this hallowed ground, and about which I wrote two years ago, when construction began.

Ten weeks after 9/11, when I first went on a perimeter walk around the still-burning World Trade Center debris- with bodies still being uncovered each day- I found an atmosphere of solemn silence among most of the others who gazed in awe at the ghastly scenes before them, most vividly remembered by me by the man carrying a huge aluminum cross with "Repent!" on it. (Among the victims of 9/11 were at least six graduates of Bayside H.S., and two dozen local residents, to whom I subsequently dedicated the World Trade Center Edition: Bayside H.S. New Alumni Association Directory, as one tribute to the victims of that tragedy.)

Three years later, in the summer of 2004, I returned to the W.T.C. site during the Republican National Convention in N.Y. C., and found rubble still being taken out of the pit. The tourists were no longer quiet, and the hawkers of "souvenirs" were doing a brisk business, near unofficial memorials and government-made signs describing the World Trade Center and 9/11. Then, in 2006, I took my third of four trips downtown, as rebuilding was starting, while droves of tourists seemed to be much more curiosity-seekers than reverent onlookers, as if 9/11 had become history more than calamity, as per the 20-foot-high photos at the subway exits.

Now, returning again on July 8, 2008, I found many things are now different. The Millennium Hotel and 7 World Trade Center have been rebuilt and in business, and- way below ground- the steel beams for the Freedom Tower can now be seen. The 20-foot-high pictures- and the 8th Avenue subway exit itself- are now gone, with only a "regular" staircase to ascend. The "message board" for visitors to enter their thoughts on is also gone, and- amazingly- they are still removing truck after truck of concrete and steel W.T.C. foundations, where it appears that "Buildings 2, 3, and 4" are supposed to go. To my surprise, most of the fencing around the site is blocked by blue plastic, so the few places where you can view demolition and construction are from the World Financial Center and South Bridge. It seems as if the emphasis by those in charge is now commerce, not reflection.

As with my perimeter walks in 2001, 2004, and 2006, I concluded my return to the W.T.C. site with another stop at St. Paul's Church, which survived 9/11 and houses not only George Washington's original pew, but the memorials to those who worked on "recovery" for months after the Attack On America, and were fed there. As happened on my three previous visits, my ride back home was most melancholy.

Those who are complaining about the "disgrace" at the W.T.C. site, have, however, gotten it backwards! They want to scrap the wrong part of the plan! To paraphrase the song, "What New York Needs Now" is "not another building", but completion of a national memorial to 3,000 victims of 9/11, similar to what can be found at Gettysburg or Pearl Harbor, where people can reflect in peace! To build condominiums/offices at this sacred ground would be sacrilegious! What should be done is to scrap any plans for Buildings 2, 3, or 4! That space should be used to encase the remains of the more than 1,000 victims now remaining in the garbage dump on Staten Island, and cynically referred to as "only dust", so their families can have some closure, even if their bones can't be returned for a burial. Such a change would erase at least a part of the real disgrace at the W.T.C. site.
Respectfully,
Frank Skala
Bayside