The grave robbers of Ground Zero

As if anticipating the left's insidious attempts to steal their fire -- by turning their sacred precinct into an anti-American bully pulpit -- the angry gods of Ground Zero blew up a sandstorm of warning on the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (Merlin-Net Photo)

Contemptuous of everyday Americans' ability to decide what's best for themselves -- and afraid to admit what they're really up to -- fire-and-brimstone lay preachers of the anti-American left are working furiously behind the scenes to rob Ground Zero of its genius loci (spirit of the place). "A Blame America Monument is not what we need or deserve. But it looks like one is already in the works," writes a justifiably outraged Michelle Malkin in "The desecration of Ground Zero" at Town Hall:

In a startling op-ed printed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday [now available to all at Opinion Journal], Debra Burlingame exposed "The Great Ground Zero Heist." Burlingame is on the board of directors of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. She reports that the World Trade Center memorial will encompass a "cultural complex" whose primary tenant will be something called the "International Freedom Center."

Burlingame explains:

The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.

We are reminded of Daniel Henninger's call a couple of years back for honoring the spirit of the place at Ground Zero by leaving it mostly open. His sentiments resonate a hundredfold now in light of leftists' attempts to fill the space with their p.c. chatter and appropriate the spiritual power of this hallowed ground for their cheap, anti-American political agenda. It calls to mind the "sympathetic magic" of cannibals who believe they take on the strength of slain enemies by eating them.

Bush-Hater-in-Chief George Soros' "spirit infuses this grievance-mongering enterprise," says Michelle Malkin. (Photo from Soros website)

If you think we -- and the immediate right half of the blogosphere -- are getting hysterical over nothing, Michelle advises us to "take a closer look at the chief movers and shakers behind the project"

Tom Bernstein, a deep-pocketed Hollywood financier and real estate mogul, is the primary driver behind the IFC. Bernstein's longime friendship and business partnership with Yale classmate George W. Bush gives cover to his radical activism as president of Human Rights First. The group opposed Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez over the administration's preventive detention policies and has joined with the ACLU in mau-mauing the Pentagon over alleged prisoner abuse . . .

Burlingame also reports that Anthony Romero, ACLU executive director, "is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11." Then there's billionaire Bush-basher George Soros, who Burlingame reports is an early funder and supporter of the IFC and whose spirit infuses this grievance-mongering enterprise.

It's those forces of darkness again, lurking just beyond the campfire of civilization. Freedom isn't free, and we must be forever vigilant. As Charles Johnson of LGF writes, "This cannot be allowed to happen; but we need to keep the heat on or it will. Contact information for the parties concerned is in this post."

Update:  Michelle has lots of links, including Robert at Lime Shurbet, who "has set up a new 'Take Back the Memorial' website with handy contact links to keep pressure on local and federal officials over the battle for Ground Zero."

Update II:  Mrs. Greyhawk of Mudville Gazette [via Michelle] cuts right to the chase: "I agree they need to be bombarded with complaints; however, I think there's only one who can rally New York and the country into putting a stop to this insult . . . yes, the one and only, "Person of the Year 2001," Rudy Giuliani.

Update III: InstaLinked in the same paragraph with the Pajamas Media Meister. Yah!

Update IV: A graphic banner from Robert Shurbet.

Comments

[goomp]

It ain't no fun to have to accept the leftists who hate all that America has stood for as fellow Americans. Have the Commies won after all?

[AST]

I thought that they should have rebuilt the twin towers, taller, stronger and armed.

If the lefties succeed, we may have to fly another plane into the miscarriage they create. What's wrong with New York? Why aren't the people there rising up en masse to stop this nonsense?

[goomp]

Just read Kathy Lopez article on why we should make friends again with the French people. They voted against the wishes of the "Liberal Intellecetual Morons" of their country so we should take heart and cheer for the same result hear in America.

[AST]

In response to Burlingame's editorial in the WSJ, I suggest that they consider creating a memorial cemetery similar to Arlington, honoring those who have given their lives fighting the War on Terror, including surviving firefighters and workers who helped clean up the site and others who have fought to maintain freedom. As the statue of the Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima marks Arlington, a statue of the Fire Fighters and Police at the WTC site would be an excellent, inspirational symbol of what happened there.

[pam]

I still think we should rebuild the towers as they were -with additional safety features, of course- and an inscription.

Oh, yes, and a memorial marker in honor of everyone that died there.

[Sissy Willis]

Yes. Whatever is built, it has to be about those who gave there lives there that day.

[Drtaxsacto]

It will be a travesty if the left is able to perpetrate this fraud. I was working out of the country when 9/11 happened. I experienced what most Americans did in an outpouring of sympathy. When I returned I went to New York on business and was able to go to the Concert for New York. On the floor that night were 6000 survivors from the events of 9/11. Each time a swell like Susan Sarandon or some other leftist cluck came out - the minute they tried to introduce a political comment - they were booed down.

The focus of this place of honor should be on the people who lost their lives in all of the events of that day, period. If there is need to have a location of rant on leftist issues it should not be here.

[Mr.Kurtz]

Thank you, Sissy.

I was reminded the other night when I saw a film of elderly French men and women in Normandy weeping at their remembrance of what we gave. I wept with them.

Despite the current fashion of Francophobia, these individuals have not forgotten what matters.

Neither should we. Ever.

This is a site that should stand alongside Lidice, Phnom Penh and the Kolyma. But, being American, it should soar, not just to remind us of what we lost, but of what we are.

[Captain Ace]

An appropriate Ground Zero memorial:

The Kaaba -- the black stone of Mecca

[AnotherOldNavyChief]

I've always thought that the proper "memorial" would be to rebuild the Twin Towers, one story taller than the originals. Of course there should be a plaque, telling the story of 9/11 and listing the names of all who perished that day. There should be one on the open roof of each building, right beside the anti-aircraft station...

[Pyst]

Leave it to RADICALS of the LEFT or RIGHT to make this political. Which is exactly what the Take Back the Memorial people DON'T want. You are doing a wonderful job of defying their wishes and making this a politcal pissing contest. You the author and the rest venting poltical hatred are dancing on graves for poltical angle....I hope you all are religious cause you'll recieve on the back end for your calliousness.