generated by Matt Well’s now famous piece (Quick! Slap on the “Viewpoint” label!) that I am genuinely not sure whether Rottweiler Puppy’s fisking has already been mentioned on this blog.
The BBC was earlier congratulating itself on having had 400,000 page impressions on this piece over the weekend 3-4 September. Ed gently suggested that even then not all of them might have been from fans – although I am willing to believe most of them were: the sort of person that makes up the audience of Question Time would have lapped this up. It would be interesting to know how high the total is now, and what the referring pages were.
I didn’t find the original design of the memorial offensive. A lot of things have a C-shape after all. But using the *word* “crescent” was insensitive, seeing as the crescent is the symbol of Islam and the killers killed in the name of Islam. Normally I say that there is too much sensitivity in our society, but seeing as the PC crowd are always demanding more and more finely-tuned sensitivity from the rest of us, they could try showing some themselves.
In addition Natalie, the points of the crescent are apparently aligned to point towards Mecca.
Mark
I must admit that I find Susan and Verity’s proposed acts of wonton destruction of the trees, somewhat alarming and support your idea of additional trees. However, I am in favour of the removal of “The Crescent of Embrace” plaque and it’s replacement with something a little less obtuse. May I suggest “They died defending American freedom” or the more catchy ” I’m gonna die, but I’m taking you with me you sons of bitches”
I think “Lets Roll!” is the only thing that needs to be on the sign.
Why not plant the trees in a pattern saying “Let’s Roll” ? That would be a true memorial for the folks who prevented the hijackers flying flight 93 into the Capitol or the White House.
Or like Mark Steyn sggests, just a simple stone in a huge open space. With the names of those who were hijacked. Like the Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede, but a bit bigger and in a far larger space. With a full CIRCLE of trees.
http://www.egham.co.uk/info/jfk.html
I don’t expect the BBC will cover this story of the venality of a democrtic Congressmn in NO from ABC, not even a snippet on that enormous website :
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1
I’m sure mother nature will survive the loss of a few trees. Unintebtional or otherwise, in no way, shape or form are the murderers of a plane full of Americans going to be memorialized instead of the victims.
I’m not usually big on furile gestures such as boycotts, but I’ll be damned if i’m going to be buying Heinz products from here on out if I can help it.
Michelle Malkin’s take on that wretched Crescent :
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/mm20050914.shtml
It’s all getting a bit ‘Princess Di Memorial Fountain’ isn’t it. What is it with memorials these days that they have to be art projects or spout slogans?
What’s wrong with the traditional bit of rock with the relevant names on it.
Alan G,
Approximately towards Mecca, like my house. I can’t believe that there is a secret conspiracy here. The designers didn’t check out which way it aligned or think deeply about what a crescent means. They were just incredibly obtuse when it came to seeing what would cause offense. Send ’em on a sensitivity course.
Natalie,
I don’t think there’s a conspiracy here either. I think the symbolism is deliberate in my opinion.
BTW I’d like to apologize to everyone for being part responsible for steering this thread away from the main post and BBC bias.
The Viet Nam memorial in DC, with its endless list of names of servicemen who died in the war, is sombre and touching – and should have been a one off. But you don’t copy memorials any more than you copy works of art and this lefty fad for memorials to victims, not fighters, and lists of names of people we have never heard of and who have done nothing, in most instances for the common good – elevates being a victim to something rather glorious.
That plane over PA was a sickening nightmare, but I think commemorating victims diminishes the deed, and it is the deed and the heroism we are honouring. It should be a stark plaque that says “Lets’ roll” and under it, the names of Todd Beamer and (was it three?) other men who saved the White House, the number of the flight, and the date. That’s it.
Their names were Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick. Bay Area people all. Tom Burnett lived only about five miles away from where I live. Not everyone who lives here is an idiotarian.
Natalie
I think you’re giving a free pass to a sick act and deliberately insulting act. If a ‘crescent’ then why not a cross? There are many in the US determined to keep Christianity out of public life, for good reasons and bad. They would protest a memorial of trees shaped this way so why are these same people now seemingly willing to accept THE symbol of Islam (that’s a crescent, not a Kalashnikov.) “Let’s roll” is a phrase, an encouragement, a command which needs no explanation and will always be associated with a group of citizens who acted heroically in the face of an evil, uncivilised enemy and directly links the memorial to the act.
I don’t think the designers were obtuse at all. I think they knew what they were doing. If it had just been meant to be a broken-circle, why are the ends tapered to a point? Broken circles don’t have tapered points.
It’s all part of the touchy-feely multi-culti mindset of our “betters.”
Shortly after 9-11, one of the elites actually proposed planting a mosque at Ground Zero in New York in order to show our “tolerance” toward Islam.
I kid you not. If you Google it up I’m sure you can find a reference to it.
=
Well at least people are beginning to demand that their culture, morals, sensitivities and mores are recognised by those promoting the abomination and calculated insult in New York.
http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2005/09/ifc_protest_at_.html
Susan
These are deeply sick people. They would have had Wellington order his troops greet Napoleon’s Imperial Guard with a hearty “Bonjour!” on the field of Waterloo before offering their wives for pleasure. You know, just to show how ‘culturally sensitive’ we are. Well in my country I’m not culturally sensitive. More than that, I demand cultural sensitivity from visitors and if they don’t like it they know where the damned airport is. I’ve lived abroad. I spent some years in Italy, France, Spain and Cyprus. I can behave in a perfectly civilised fashion and decide for myself if the place is for me. What I will not do is demand that locals, the inheritors of deep and ancient cultures, bend their will and compromise what is theirs to suit me. It is arrogance, rudeness and an extreme impertinence and a demand for cultural suicide from me to my host. It is bad enough for foreigners to come here and demand that we oblige them, when my compatriots are doing all they can to assist then it’s time to begin building the public gallows.
Well said Pete_London!!!
Alan G, don’t mention it. Things have to get weirder than this before I worry about staying on topic.
Just don’t mention the Balfour declaration.
Am I the only one who thinks Teenagers shouldn’t be having sex at all – not just for five months?
But you don’t copy memorials any more than you copy works of art and this lefty fad for memorials to victims, not fighters, and lists of names of people we have never heard of and who have done nothing, in most instances for the common good – elevates being a victim to something rather glorious.
That plane over PA was a sickening nightmare, but I think commemorating victims diminishes the deed, and it is the deed and the heroism we are honouring. It should be a stark plaque that says “Lets’ roll” and under it, the names of Todd Beamer and (was it three?) other men who saved the White House, the number of the flight, and the date. That’s it.
Lefties seem to have a completely different concept of hero than we do. To them, people like the Dixie Chicks are heroes. Kanye West and Mayor Nagin are heroes. Anyone who has the so-called ”’courage”’ to speak out against someone like Bush.
Cockney,
“What’s wrong with the traditional bit of rock with the relevant names on it.”
If it was just a simple memorial, I would guess there would be less ‘commissions’ ‘panels’ timetables’ ‘meetings’ ‘forums’ etc…..
In other words……..less money to pass around their chums.
Bureaucracy = money in pocket.
TomL is correct. There needs to be a commissioning panel, a panel of eminent judges, invitations to artists and sculptors, and possibly architects, to submit designs, a public relations/press agent hired, stars to canvass for endorsements, radio interviews to book, journalists taken to lunch and blah bloody blah …
One rock, one mason, put in field, job done.
I like that, Pete_London. As simple, direct and strong as “Let’s roll!”
With regard to the Muslims wishing to have a ‘Genocide Day’, often reciting Israel’s actions against the Palestinians as their reason. A new site with videos of how the Palestinians stage events for the media, and how the media willingly goes along with it, even helping them to stage mange the event. Well worth a visit
Justin, the designer, Paul Murdoch, full of innocent wonder, says OK, he’ll change the design if people have “misunderstood it”. He feels he can change the design, yet retain the original spirit of his piece of crap. “…we will look to resolve in a way that keeps the essential qualities”. Note the royal “we”. Note that he is not going to give up diddly. He’s going to change it but it will retain its “essential qualities” – an assault on decency, I guess.
TomL – quite.
Also (again much like the Princess Di fiasco) it’s now 4 years since the plane went down. If there was an overwhelming demand for an ‘artistic’ (or indeed any) memorial on the site from the victim’s families I’m sure it would have been built a long time ago. Why not just save the cash for something more worthwhile?
Cockney – what is more worthwhile than a memorial to people who knowingly gave their lives for us?
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Edited By Siteowner
Verity,
Absolutely nothing, but if it’s so important to have a memorial erected at the site itself then why wasn’t one put up three or four years ago? To start flapping about it now just suggests that the memorial design trade is trying to drum up some business.
Cockney – Yes, it seems strange that it took so long when it should have been immediate. It will have been something political, although what, who knows? But commemorations of heroes should not be available for politically motivated lowlifes to get involved in.
There is a memorial erected at the site but it is a makeshift grassroots affair consisting of the usual flags, crosses, teddy bears, hand-written poems etc. pinned to a fence. The permanent memorial is meant to replace it.
I would be okay with the memorial as designed if they made the arc of trees a true semi-circle, rather than a crescent. That should be an easy change to make. (A semi-circle is of even thickness all around — a crescent is thick in the middle and then tapers into two sharp pointed ends.)
I’m disappointed that they will not be commemorating “Let’s roll” but I suppose it’s too politically incorrect for the delicate sensitivities of the multi-culti set. After all it’s a rallying cry of self-defense, rather than the passive, dignified acceptance of obliteration at the hands of righteous, oppressed freedom fighters who were only protesting US imperialism — an outcome which I suspect that certain of the chattering class elite would have vastly preferred.
Personally I’ve never quite understood why Princess Diana deserved a monument in the first place.
Roxana – because she popularised this touchy feely crap and a whole industry grew up around it and is doing very nicely, thank you.
Susan – did you also know it is to have blue tiles (to symbolise the sky – my ass) and some white tiles supposedly symbolising something else, but mighty suspiciously like a famous mosque (mentioned on LGF). Worse, there is to be a “tower” with windchimes, as in calling one to reflection and prayer.
How DARE they! This is absolute madness. Now this Robert Murdock, the architect says he is sorry people misunderstood it (meaning, he’s sorry people understood only too well) and he will try to modify it without losing its essential message. (Message to Robert: the essential message is what needs to get lost, because if it is not lost it will be bombed. That’s for sure. People are steamed.)
A – I cannot believe the insolence of this individual. B – I cannot believe the sheer stupidity and incompetence of the people who chose it. Michelle Malkin http://michellemalkin.com/ has quite a few unkind words to say about this.
Verity: It looks like they are choosing all kinds of “symbols” for this memorial — except of course the ones that are most sacred to the majority of American people — the Flag, the Constitution, and the Judeo-Christian Bible. Blecchh.
I tried to Google the architect and couldn’t find anything on him.
On Radio 4 tonight, there was an extract from the debate between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens from New York. The BBC introduced it putting Galloway as the prescient renegade but the excerpts did GG no favours as Hitchens appeared to trounce him. I’m not sure that Galloway is capable of thinking on his feet. Does anyone have a link to a transcript of the debate?
Allen – Here’s one. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2005/s1461310.htm I do think Galloway is glib and quick on his feet, but he does a lot with the smoke and mirrors of saying things that sound clever but, on reflection, are stupid. For example, he said Hitchens (I guess referring to his conversion from a lefty to a conservative) was an example of a butterfly turning back into a slug. Wha’? He seems to think slugs turn into butterflies. Maybe he’s spent too much time in the desert.
Simon Heffer, in this week’s Speccie, gives special mention to our house darling, Matt Frei. http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php?id=6627&issue=2005-09-17 He says Hillary ought to hire him.