Dear Editor:
As the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, I am most disheartened to learn that the new 9/11 Memorial, which is to be opened this month, has chosen to include a very divisive and symbol that excludes and marginalizes non-Christian victims of those attacks.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum, funded largely with taxpayer money, should recognize and honor all of the victims of 9/11, not just the Christian ones. It dishonors the victims to turn the museum into the latest ideological battleground over the First Amendment.
Dear Editor:
It amazes me that the memorial for the 9/11 attacks – attacks which were motivated by religious intolerance and hate – would include a religious symbol as the center of its memorial! What a slap in the face to all Americans to have divisive religion yet again shoved in our face in a memorial that should have brought all Americans together.
Dear Editor:
I support American Atheists’ campaign to demand inclusivity in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.
Although Christians certainly were among the victims of 9/11, upwards of 40% of the victims were identified by their families as holding other faiths or no faiths. Jews, Hindus, Muslims and atheists were all among the victims.
For shame that the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, funded with our taxpayer dollars, chose to exploit this tragedy to promote their own ideological agenda and mount a 20-foot, 10 ton cross in the memorial that represents only Christians. Aside from the Constitutional issues, the bitter irony of choosing to use a religious symbol to represent the victims of a religiously-motivated attack is unconscionable.
Dear Editor:
I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the lawsuit filed by American Atheists over the cross included in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum; but did you now that they tried to engage memorial officials for 9 years before finally resorting to the lawsuit? The question I have is, why did memorial and government officials refuse to even acknowledge their concerns, let alone be willing to sit down and listen to them? What other choice did those officials give American Atheists to allow their concerns a fair hearing?
Dear Editor:
It is outrageous that the 9/11 Memorial and Museum would have chosen to place a representation of the Christian Latin cross in its museum. One of the most well-established causes of the 9/11 attacks was because of religious sectarianism. Not only is the cross a grim and gory reminder of that cause, it represents yet another effort to do that exact same thing, to impose a religious ideology on the rest of us. The cross also mocks the fact that almost 3,000 people perished in the WTC attacks without any divine intervention whatsoever. Just on the basis of human decency, this symbol is about the most insensitive choice the WTCMF could have made to memorialize that national tragedy.
