Action Alert: Flight 93 September 11th Memorial

Always on Watch brings this important story to our attention:

The Flight 93 National Memorial, operated by the National Parks Service, is inviting comment on the overall plan for the memorial to be built in Somerset County, Pennsylvania to mark the crash site of United Flight 93 (have you seen the film?)

The design of the memorial (National Park Service plan here(PDF)) continues to spark controversy even after a redesign, or perhaps rewording, removed references to a "Crescent of Embrace" meant to describe an arc of Red Maples ringing the site, which many believe has direct symbolic connections to Islam.

While there were a few alterations made to the design, the overall concern for Islamic symbolism, intentional or otherwise, remains.

Error Theory has been up front on this issue from the beginning and files this update. The following graphic shows the symbolic representation of the Red Crescent in the memorial design and compares it to the flags of a few Islamic countries.

Graphics from Error Theory.

What's more disturbing is that lines running from the points of the arc run directly to Washington, the target of the attackers. Bisecting lines of the arc also point to Mecca.

I understand that's a bit of a stretch for people to take in, but I invite you to visit Error Theory and examine further details and graphics.

There are just too many uncomfortable symbolic issues relating to the design of this memorial to risk scarring the scared ground where the last remains of the victims of Flight 93 rest with something that could be interpreted in any way as a connection to Islam and the perpetrators of this horror.

If you wish to express your own thoughts on this rather dubious memorial, you can comment here at the Flight 93 Memorial page operated by the National Park Service. Responsiveness from the bureaucrats who approved this suspect design has not been good. So you may wish to add emails to Memorial Project Chairman John Reynolds (jreynolds@nationalparks.org) and Superintendent Hanley's boss Mary Bomar (mary_bomar@nps.gov) to your comment list as well as your Congressional representatives. Blogger posts on this subject are also highly recommended.

My own thoughts are that the Flight93 National Memorial should discard completely the current design and begin a new design competition.

The comment period for the Flight 93 National Memorial ends August 14.