(NAME-MCE) Public Memorials and 9/11

[Warren Blumenfeld]

Public Memorials and 9/11
A Commentary by Warren J. Blumenfeld

Public memorials at their very best have the 
potential to honor our dead while bringing the 
living together to grieve, to reflect, to heal, 
and to unite. For these and so many other 
reasons, public memorials are enormously powerful symbols.

Take for example two memorials designed by Maya 
Lin. The first is the Vietnam Memorial in 
Washington, DC whose black marble wall honoring 
the fallen has helped our nation to begin the 
healing process by bringing people together 
regardless of the positions we took on the War.

The second Lin memorial, The Civil Rights 
Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, while 
memorializing 40 people who gave their lives in 
the pursuit of dignity and equality for all 
people, is a testimony to the spirit and 
resiliency of the American dream. The memorial’s 
fountain design is inspired by Martin Luther 
King, Jr.’s glowing words: “
we will not be 
satisfied until justice rolls down like waters 
and righteousness like a mighty stream
.”

Following the tragic events on September 11, 
2001, we once again have the potential to unite 
as we built memorials to the fallen. This past 
week, traveling 300-miles from New York City to 
Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a motorcycle honor 
guard of some 1000 firefighters transported a 
14-foot, 3,000 pound Christian cross monument 
constructed from steel from the World Trade 
Center to memorialize the passengers aboard 
Flight 93 whose plane crashed on 9/11 near 
Shanksville as passengers attempted to overtake 
hijackers. The memorial was dedicated during a 
ceremony on Sunday, August 14. It rests on a base 
in the shape of a Pentagon to commemorate those 
lost on that date at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

While the purpose and intent of this memorial is 
well founded, the memorial’s design is 
problematic at best. Even IF, and this is a very 
big IF, all the passengers aboard Flight 93 had 
been practicing and committed Christians, the 
purpose of public 9/11 memorials must be to help 
heal the wounds of an entire nation, a nation 
whose people were affected by the tragic events 
on that day. By instituting a Christian cross, 
constructed from the artifacts of the World Trade 
Center (artifacts honored and cherished by many 
of us), the memorial promotes and reinforces one 
perspective, one faith, one standard of 
memorialization, while marginalizing, 
subordinating, and limiting access of those who 
do not adhere to Christian faith traditions. In 
so doing, this memorial fails to attain its potential.




Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Assistant Professor
Multicultural and International Curriculum Studies
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
wblumen at iastate.edu
515.294.5931 office
515.232.8230 home