How Not to Commemorate 9/11

As America prepares to commemorate and reflect on the 4th anniversary of the September 11th atrocities, here are three outrageous examples of how this should not be done:

-Writing in The Weekly Standard, 9/11 survivor Deborah Weiss describes the ridiculous plan to build a politically correct monument to moral equivalence called the "International Freedom Center" at Ground Zero. Debra Burlingame, whose brother was murdered on 9/11, first alerted us back in June to the IFC's plans. Fortunately, a group called Take Back the Memorial has been formed to work on behalf of a Ground Zero memorial that honors the victims of 9/11 instead of depicting their murder as just another act of inhumanity, on a par with the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

-Even more outrageous are the newly released plans for a memorial to the heroes of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, who gave their lives to prevent the fourth team of terrorists from destroying either the White House or Capitol building. Incredibly, the monument is to be shaped like a Muslim crescent, and is even called the "Crescent of Embrace". The idea that you would build a crescent-shaped memorial to people who were killed by terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam is mind-boggling. It can only be explained by either incredible obtuseness or the worst sort of politically correct abasement. As Ed Morrissey has pointed out at Captain's Quarters, this is the equivalent of building a memorial at Pearl Harbor in the shape of the rising sun.

-Finally, a friend emailed me several months ago to let me know about the "performance art" exploits of one Kerry Skarbakka. Mr. Skarbakka's idea for honoring the victims of 9/11 consists of photographing himself while falling, just like those who jumped from the Twin Towers to avoid being burned to death. In June, Skarbakka "put on a harness and had himself dropped, again and again, from the roof of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, tipped head-down and pinwheeling his arms for added effect while confederates snapped pictures that sell - he says - for thousands of dollars. 'I can't afford the work I make,' he quipped."

Idiots like this are the reason I shun so-called "performance art" like the plague.