(October 9, 2013 at 5:36 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: I thought the memorial was for the first-responders who found inspiration from the cross-shaped debris or who died in their service. The cross at ground zero may have been specific to Christianity but it was also part of the history of the site and an important image (like the falling man) from those events.
What about the first responders that saw nothing but a random piece of steel left in the shape of a cross? By choosing a symbol with religious implications, regardless of the fact that it was an actual piece of the building, you are tying your religion to a tragedy while simultaneously denying the existence of the other religions and the fact that people of various different beliefs suffered and died on that day. You can always remember that cross and Christians can choose to glorify its signicance, but turning it into a government sanctioned memorial is publically declaring that you do not care about the beliefs and memories of the victims that were not Christian.
While you may see it as honoring the memories of the people that died, it is, in fact, disprespecting the memories of many of them.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
