Rarely do I touch on regional issues, even in my own state of Illinois. However the kids have been grousing about the Sept. 11th Memorial here in Arizona. I've seen the pictures of the memorial, and you can, too here (including photos of the inscriptions) and here (which includes a photo of what it looks like from the outside). Needless to say I can understand why they're a little ticked. I would be, as well, if Illinois decided to erect such an abhorrant mockery to remember that day, those who died, and the survivors who walked from the rubble.
On the 26th, Ace of Spades posted phtos of what a memorial to that day should look like. It's in Broomfield, Colorado; the images alone will have tears welling up in your eyes. It was done tastefully, with plaques that focused on each plane attack, and a sculpture of three people. Two on either side of another helping her to safety. This is how a memorial of that deadly day should be. Those that settled on the plans for the memorial here in Arizona clearly had ulterior motives, and those ideas were obviously driven by the necessity to make a political statement. And speaking of political statements, check this out from Flopping Aces:
A reader at Hot Air found this curriculum for K-12 students visiting the site:
Ask students to think about how they would answer these questions: What does the word “tolerance” mean? What do you do and how do you react when a person is different from you? Share that today they will be learning more about tolerance and diversity.
Describe how key political, social, environmental, and economic events of the late 20th century and early 21st century (e.g., Watergate, OPEC/oil crisis, Central American wars/Iran-Contra, End of Cold War, first Gulf War, September 11) affected, and continue to affect, the United States.
Ask students what a world-wide memorial to victims of terrorism might look like. Have students design/draw their idea of a memorial. Have them write a paragraph or two explaining how their design shows a world affected by terrorism in the 21st century.Inform students that today they will look at any effects 9-11 has had on our civil liberties.
Enactment: Discussion: Ask students: What has our government done to prevent a terrorist attack from happening again? (i.e., enacted the Patriot Act, increased security at airports and other locations, monitored some overseas phone conversations, etc.) What are some of the negative and positive aspects of these changes? Do students feel the changes are helping to prevent terrorism? What else do students feel the government could or should do to prevent a similar event from happening?
While I applaud teachers for wanting to teach about Sept. 11th, I would prefer they stick to the facts. Nineteen Middle-Eastern men, affiliated with the terrorist group al-Qaida, hijacked four jet liners, and turned them into cruise missiles. In that attack, 2,996 innocent civilians were killed. And since then, we have gone to war to destroy this enemy and protect this nation. Talk about the days events, discuss what they heard/saw on TV or radio that day. FORGET tolerance and diversity. The reasons why these terrorists chose to do this is irrelevant; they targeted innocent civilians in a surprise attack, and that should be condemned and deemed unacceptable by ANY civilized nation. And can someone tell me what two events--Watergate and Ira/Contra--have to do with Sept. 11th? The last time I checked, neither one of them were connected to the attack by the 9/11 Commission's report. Personally, I think the teachers would be better off sticking to facts and history rather than talking points that have no relevant place in the discussion at all.
Let the pundits hash out the "why" of the act of war. Let the president and the military fight the darn war. Learning to love and forgive our enemy is nice and sweet, but it doesn't help us protect this nation. The nation will be safe once our enemy is destroyed, or at least their capacity to fight is. Group hugs aren't going to help us. Learning about their culture isn't going to help us. And sitting in a circle, holding hands, and singing Kumbaya won't help us either. Killing our enemy will.
And the latest coming out of this flap is amusing. The governor of the State of Arizona has issued a statement that she never saw the inscriptions and that all questions or criticisms should be directed to the people that put the memorial together. Excuse me, Madam Governor but as the elected leader of the State of Arizona, it falls to you to review what might be seen as a mistake when it comes to spending taxpayer monies. That's right, dear readers, this disgusting memorial was constructed with taxpayer dollars, and private contributions. And is it any wonder why the citizens of Arizona are hot under the collar about this? Mr. Allah Pundit at Hot Air believes the governor to be "bullet-proof." That may be so, but as the kids point out, a couple more black eyes never looked better on such a pitiful, liberal governor.
This memorial craps all over the memory of those who died and those who responded to the attacks. I must concur with the kids, Espresso Pundit, and anyone else who has made this sort of call: TEAR it down, and rebuild it correctly. Yes, it is a waste of the taxpayers money, but I would rather see a memorial I can be proud of and remember that fateful day than one that has nothing but spit and vitriol for a nation that was attacked. The inclusion of non-Sept. 11th material in these inscriptions is completely and totally inappropriate. And if there was no oversight conducted by the governor's office--as she claims--then this is a serious lapse on the part of the state government.
Now the commission in charge of placing memorials in Wesley Bolin Plaza has decided to review the Sept. 11th memorial, after embarressingly admitting that no one paid attention to the inscriptions at all. Now they have decided that this warrants an investigation, and changes if they deem them necessary. (Here's a hint for them: CHANGE IT!) But what is most telling is the quote that Mr. Allah Pundit highlighted in his post:
Smith said Wednesday it never occurred to him during the February meeting to check on details of the inscriptions’ wording.
“We never thought anything would be inappropriate,” he said. “It didn’t sound like there would be anything controversial.”
Smith also said he didn’t think his commission was misled. “No, I think we could have been naive.”
Naive, indeed. As a matter of fact, he goes onto add his thoughts, and I'm sure they're shared by a great deal of Arizona citizens:
These morons commissioned a monument to September 11th and never thought to check what would actually be on it?
And I thought we had a team of brain-dead monkeys running the show in Illinois. I guess this sort of stupidty isn't exclusive anywhere, but is prevalent in places where public servants seem to be lax on the job.
Sabrina McKinney
On the 26th, Ace of Spades posted phtos of what a memorial to that day should look like. It's in Broomfield, Colorado; the images alone will have tears welling up in your eyes. It was done tastefully, with plaques that focused on each plane attack, and a sculpture of three people. Two on either side of another helping her to safety. This is how a memorial of that deadly day should be. Those that settled on the plans for the memorial here in Arizona clearly had ulterior motives, and those ideas were obviously driven by the necessity to make a political statement. And speaking of political statements, check this out from Flopping Aces:
A reader at Hot Air found this curriculum for K-12 students visiting the site:
Ask students to think about how they would answer these questions: What does the word “tolerance” mean? What do you do and how do you react when a person is different from you? Share that today they will be learning more about tolerance and diversity.
Describe how key political, social, environmental, and economic events of the late 20th century and early 21st century (e.g., Watergate, OPEC/oil crisis, Central American wars/Iran-Contra, End of Cold War, first Gulf War, September 11) affected, and continue to affect, the United States.
Ask students what a world-wide memorial to victims of terrorism might look like. Have students design/draw their idea of a memorial. Have them write a paragraph or two explaining how their design shows a world affected by terrorism in the 21st century.Inform students that today they will look at any effects 9-11 has had on our civil liberties.
Enactment: Discussion: Ask students: What has our government done to prevent a terrorist attack from happening again? (i.e., enacted the Patriot Act, increased security at airports and other locations, monitored some overseas phone conversations, etc.) What are some of the negative and positive aspects of these changes? Do students feel the changes are helping to prevent terrorism? What else do students feel the government could or should do to prevent a similar event from happening?
While I applaud teachers for wanting to teach about Sept. 11th, I would prefer they stick to the facts. Nineteen Middle-Eastern men, affiliated with the terrorist group al-Qaida, hijacked four jet liners, and turned them into cruise missiles. In that attack, 2,996 innocent civilians were killed. And since then, we have gone to war to destroy this enemy and protect this nation. Talk about the days events, discuss what they heard/saw on TV or radio that day. FORGET tolerance and diversity. The reasons why these terrorists chose to do this is irrelevant; they targeted innocent civilians in a surprise attack, and that should be condemned and deemed unacceptable by ANY civilized nation. And can someone tell me what two events--Watergate and Ira/Contra--have to do with Sept. 11th? The last time I checked, neither one of them were connected to the attack by the 9/11 Commission's report. Personally, I think the teachers would be better off sticking to facts and history rather than talking points that have no relevant place in the discussion at all.
Let the pundits hash out the "why" of the act of war. Let the president and the military fight the darn war. Learning to love and forgive our enemy is nice and sweet, but it doesn't help us protect this nation. The nation will be safe once our enemy is destroyed, or at least their capacity to fight is. Group hugs aren't going to help us. Learning about their culture isn't going to help us. And sitting in a circle, holding hands, and singing Kumbaya won't help us either. Killing our enemy will.
And the latest coming out of this flap is amusing. The governor of the State of Arizona has issued a statement that she never saw the inscriptions and that all questions or criticisms should be directed to the people that put the memorial together. Excuse me, Madam Governor but as the elected leader of the State of Arizona, it falls to you to review what might be seen as a mistake when it comes to spending taxpayer monies. That's right, dear readers, this disgusting memorial was constructed with taxpayer dollars, and private contributions. And is it any wonder why the citizens of Arizona are hot under the collar about this? Mr. Allah Pundit at Hot Air believes the governor to be "bullet-proof." That may be so, but as the kids point out, a couple more black eyes never looked better on such a pitiful, liberal governor.
This memorial craps all over the memory of those who died and those who responded to the attacks. I must concur with the kids, Espresso Pundit, and anyone else who has made this sort of call: TEAR it down, and rebuild it correctly. Yes, it is a waste of the taxpayers money, but I would rather see a memorial I can be proud of and remember that fateful day than one that has nothing but spit and vitriol for a nation that was attacked. The inclusion of non-Sept. 11th material in these inscriptions is completely and totally inappropriate. And if there was no oversight conducted by the governor's office--as she claims--then this is a serious lapse on the part of the state government.
Now the commission in charge of placing memorials in Wesley Bolin Plaza has decided to review the Sept. 11th memorial, after embarressingly admitting that no one paid attention to the inscriptions at all. Now they have decided that this warrants an investigation, and changes if they deem them necessary. (Here's a hint for them: CHANGE IT!) But what is most telling is the quote that Mr. Allah Pundit highlighted in his post:
Smith said Wednesday it never occurred to him during the February meeting to check on details of the inscriptions’ wording.
“We never thought anything would be inappropriate,” he said. “It didn’t sound like there would be anything controversial.”
Smith also said he didn’t think his commission was misled. “No, I think we could have been naive.”
Naive, indeed. As a matter of fact, he goes onto add his thoughts, and I'm sure they're shared by a great deal of Arizona citizens:
These morons commissioned a monument to September 11th and never thought to check what would actually be on it?
And I thought we had a team of brain-dead monkeys running the show in Illinois. I guess this sort of stupidty isn't exclusive anywhere, but is prevalent in places where public servants seem to be lax on the job.
Sabrina McKinney
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 3:11 PM
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