Groundbreaking set for Flight 93 memorial - But fundraising still $20 million short of goal

[Turborama]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Saturday, February 21, 2009

By Marylynne Pitz

SOMERSET -- Groundbreaking on the Flight 93 National Memorial here has been set for Nov. 7, but $20 million in private donations remains to be raised. The first phase of the memorial is slated for completion by Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, according to state and federal officials who signed a letter of commitment here yesterday setting the construction schedule. The memorial, whose estimated cost is $56 million, will honor what Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell called "the first soldiers in the war against global terrorism." On Sept. 11, 2001, 40 passengers aboard Flight 93, en route from Newark, N.J. to San Francisco, learned of attacks on the World Trade Center. The passengers and crew, whose efforts thwarted an attack on Washington, died in an attempt to wrest control of the plane from four hijackers.

=snip=

The first phase of the project, according to the memorial's Web site, includes construction of the road off of Route 30, a field of honor called the bowl, construction of a road that rings the site, 40 groves, portal walls and a visitors' center.

Still to be determined is the value of 274 acres of land owned by Svonavec Inc., a stone quarry company in Somerset. This tract includes the six-acre crash site. The company will donate the six acres to the National Park Service, but appraisals are under way to determine the value of the rest of the land that will be part of the memorial site. "I think the property will transfer into the National Park Service's hands sometime in the spring of this year," he said.

Joanne Hanley, superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial, praised Patrick G. White, vice president of Families of 93. "It is because of this man that we are so far along in the acquisition process," she said yesterday. Mr. White is a lawyer who specializes in land use. The commitment letter signed yesterday will be a tangible tool of persuasion that can be shown to prospective donors, Mr. White said. C. King Laughlin, who is managing the capital campaign to raise $30 million from private donors, said yesterday that $10 million has been raised. The campaign is being led by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge and retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09052/950745-84.stm

[aquart]

1. Sorry. I can think of better uses for the money.

I feel exactly the same way about that ridiculous shrine at Ground Zero.

[Turborama]

3. The portion that was cut...

"The governor, who attended yesterday's news conference, said an access road to the memorial, built off of Route 30, will cost $9.8 million. Funding will come from the state's capital budget but Pennsylvania also will seek money from the federal land grant trust. Once built, the road will be maintained by the National Park Service."

So, the access road is coming from coming from the "state's capital budget" (from tax payers) and "the federal land grant trust", whatever that is. I wonder who's going to pay for the maintenance...? (rhetorical question)

I'm kind of on the fence about this one, tbh.

I mean, the main bulk of the money is being raised from private donors who want to give their own money towards it, I don't have a problem with that at all.

[Baby Snooks]

5. I can't think of a better use of the money....

One day both memorials will serve as a reminder of how the American people ignored the threat within, the enemy within, the way the German people did.

They did nothing to stop the other three planes. They would have done nothing to stop Flight 93. And so our Capitol most likely would have been destroyed. And had the timing been better on the part of the hijackers, and those who colluded with them, our Congress would have been killed. Which may have been what the enemy within wanted.

The enemy within has not disappeared. Barack Obama can wish it away but it is still there. Sitting at his table.

The real danger is that Osama bin Laden probably didn't know about the enemy within knowing about the plan. So the next attack will be planned more carefully. With better timing. And no one will know about it until it has happened. He wants to destroy the enemy within. Apparently more than we do. Now we want a "Truth Commission" in a country where our politicians are not capable of acknowledging truth because it will damn them as well. We have all been good Germans. No one better Germans than our Congress.

Sadly many feel the way you do. It is past. We must move on. Forget it. Put the money to better use. The problem is that it invites another attack. Because we have forgotten. One of the lessons we should have learned from the Holocaust but obviously didn't. Particularly with regard to the enemy within. We apparently still prefer to be good Germans.

[demodonkey]

2. The old memorial was quite touching. And Pennsylvania is $2.3 billion in the hole right now.

Social services, non-profits, and many other needed resources are stretched thin.

It's a fine thing to honor the dead, but these donors would do well to put their millions somewhere that will help the living right now.

[Name removed]

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