Let the dead rest

Would we do this to the remains of the Challenger?


Trade Center Steel Forms Heart of Sept. 11 Memorials


The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the steel, will invite police and fire departments and mayors and other leaders of cities and towns throughout the country to ask for pieces for memorials. The Port Authority has filled about 25 requests in the last year, and has about a dozen more pending. In recent weeks, trucks have hauled twisted steel columns that weigh hundreds of pounds to York, Pa., and Westerville, Ohio. A smaller piece was shipped to the Air Defense offices of the United States Air Force in Rome, N.Y.

“The best way we can honor the memory of those we lost on 9/11 is to find homes in the W.T.C. Memorial and in cities and towns around the nation for the hundreds of artifacts we’ve carefully preserved over the years,” said the Port Authority’s executive director, Christopher O. Ward.

The Port Authority hopes to generate more interest in the steel with new advertisements in police, fire and municipal trade magazines. There are 1,800 to 2,000 pieces, half of them very large, which are available for carting away, at the recipient’s expense. This does not include some 200 pieces, among them the most familiar and iconic, that have been claimed by the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum.

I have to be honest with you folks. I do not like this at all. I think whatever remains of this tragedy should stay in New York. In fact they should have created a burial site akin to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 31 where they the Challenger's remains are now resting.

Honestly, I know these people mean well but this is ghoulish to me. All that metal is imbued with the people who died on 9/11. Instead of parading it around in a memorial sites all over the country, all of that steel should be given a proper burial and treated as the remains of those who passed on that day. If anyone wants to create a memorial site for 9/11, they are more than welcome to, but to need to have actually remains from the site is unnecessary.

I am not saying we should bury history. We have more than enough media to ensure that future generations never forget what happened. But I do not think this is needed.