A fine sturdy editorial in America’s Newspaper of Record this morning.
The topic is the Ground Zero memorial in New York City, on the site where the World Trade Center stood. I’ll declare myself up front here: I think the whole idea of a memorial is shameful and disgraceful.
Memorials should commemorate national achievements, or willing sacrifice in some noble cause. The 9/11 attacks meet neither case. Those who were murdered were victims of a terrorist act. May they rest in peace; but their deaths are a matter for private, not public commemoration.
The 9/11 attacks were in fact a national humiliation. We should not commemorate national humiliations. This particular humiliation was made possible by our governments’ willful failure to establish proper visa and border controls, and sensible policies on immigration from regions seething with hostility to us. If we had had any of those things, none of the 9/11 hijackers would have been in our country.
We might have some consolation if the lesson had been learned, but of course it hasn’t. Persons with precisely the mindset and motives of the 9/11 hijackers appear in the newspapers every day, cheerfully imported into U.S. towns and cities, often at U.S. taxpayer expense. (Here’s an instance from yesterday’s papers.) We are the fools of the world.
All right, that’s me editorializing. Here’s America’s Newspaper of Record:
Sen. Tom Coburn is in big trouble now.
The Oklahoma Republican put a hold on a bill providing $20 million a year for the 9/11 memorial and museum at Ground Zero — irking Chuck Schumer (that’s “sacred ground”) and his mini-me, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (that’s “my 9/11 museum”).
So what’s up?
“If providing federal funding for this effort is a critical national priority, the sponsors should pay for this effort by reducing spending on lower-priority programs,” said a Coburn spokesman.
The senator has a point.
He certainly does. The editorial goes on to observe that the 9/11 project is, and into the indefinite future will continue to be, a huge and profitable enterprise for well-connected Manhattan mandarins.
Museum executives are themselves riding the gravy train — with salaries bumping up close to $400,000 and lush golden parachutes apparently the norm.
In other words, the whole disgusting project is just a pocket-liner for Chuck Schumer’s cocktail-party buddies, largely financed from our taxes. How they must laugh at us!
I think I’m going to throw up.