To All,
Please be advised that I am meeting with Joe Daniels and the WTC Memorial Foundation tomorrow to discuss the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
I am going to try to convince them to help us get this done.
No matter the outcome of this meeting we will be moving forward with this project and with your support we will have this completed by the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
We will keep you posted and thank you for your continued support.
Dennis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dennis McKeon
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 9:40 PM
Subject: HEARTS AND HANDS UPDATE
To All,
We have finally reached the stepping off point for the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
We will be beginning our fundraising efforts and I have also been asked to meet with the WTC Memorial Foundation to discuss their recent press release and the similarities to the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
To that end I would like to request the following.
From 9/11 Family Members
I need letters of support as well as 8x10 photos of your lost loved ones.
I also need current contact information for mailings.
I also need to know if you would like to be interviewed for the documentary and if you would attend an exhibition of the United in Memory 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt during the anniversary weekend this September.
From 9/11 Family Groups and Responder Unions
I need letters detailing your organization’s awareness of the project and your support.
I also need to know if you would like to schedule an interview for the documentary.
From Elected Officials
I need to know availability of funding as well if you would like to be part of the documentary.
From WTC Companies
I need current contact information.
Together we can get this done and have a peaceful and serene memorial to all those impacted by 9/11 completed by the 10th Anniversary.
Below please find a link to background information.
Please send all responses to info@where-to-turn.org or 718-966-6531
Thank You
Dennis McKeon
HEARTS AND HANDS MEMORIAL
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=21
Fundraising Opportunity
http://www.where-to-turn.org/lobaido_poster.php
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
WILL THE MADNESS EVER END AT GROUND ZERO?
James Abadie, executive at Bovis Lend Lease in charge of Sept. 11 Memorial, resigns amid probe
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/15/2009-06-15_james_abadie_executive_at_b_in_charge_of_sept_11_memorial_resigns_in_the_wake_of.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/15/2009-06-15_james_abadie_executive_at_b_in_charge_of_sept_11_memorial_resigns_in_the_wake_of.html
What Government Should Be All About
Today we found out what government is all about.
Forget about Albany and the circus that continues to masquerade as a Legislature.
Forget about the pay for play or the behind the scene deals.
Forget about the Democrats, Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives.
What we saw here on Staten Island was a government of the people by the people and for the people.
We saw Staten Islanders taking the lead from the McAllister’s standing together for the right reasons.
We saw Dominick DeRubio prove that you are never too old or young to get involved.
We saw Jimmy Oddo and other Staten Island elected officials work for the people despite possibly getting on the wrong side of the mayor.
We saw that the power of the people is not just a catch phrase.
And Engine 161 will remain open.
A victory for all Staten Islanders and hopefully a message to the mayor that when push comes to shove, while we may bend we will not break.
So thank you Roe, Joe, Dominick, the South Beach Civic and everyone else who made this possible.
Thank you for restoring our faith in the system.
And to those in Albany we hope you are watching.
Because we have been reminded what government should be all about.
And it is sure as hell not what’s going on in our capital.
Dennis McKeon
Deal will save Staten Island's Engine Co. 161 from closure
http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2009/06/deal_will_save_staten_islands.html
Forget about Albany and the circus that continues to masquerade as a Legislature.
Forget about the pay for play or the behind the scene deals.
Forget about the Democrats, Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives.
What we saw here on Staten Island was a government of the people by the people and for the people.
We saw Staten Islanders taking the lead from the McAllister’s standing together for the right reasons.
We saw Dominick DeRubio prove that you are never too old or young to get involved.
We saw Jimmy Oddo and other Staten Island elected officials work for the people despite possibly getting on the wrong side of the mayor.
We saw that the power of the people is not just a catch phrase.
And Engine 161 will remain open.
A victory for all Staten Islanders and hopefully a message to the mayor that when push comes to shove, while we may bend we will not break.
So thank you Roe, Joe, Dominick, the South Beach Civic and everyone else who made this possible.
Thank you for restoring our faith in the system.
And to those in Albany we hope you are watching.
Because we have been reminded what government should be all about.
And it is sure as hell not what’s going on in our capital.
Dennis McKeon
Deal will save Staten Island's Engine Co. 161 from closure
http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2009/06/deal_will_save_staten_islands.html
Sunday, June 14, 2009
HEARTS AND HANDS MEMORIAL
We have finally reached the stepping off point for the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
We will be beginning our fundraising efforts and I have also been asked to meet with the WTC Memorial Foundation to discuss their recent press release and the similarities to the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
To that end I would like to request the following.
From 9/11 Family Members
I need letters of support as well as 8x10 photos of your lost loved ones.
I also need current contact information for mailings.
I also need to know if you would like to be interviewed for the documentary and if you would attend an exhibition of the United in Memory 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt during the anniversary weekend this September.
From 9/11 Family Groups and Responder Unions
I need letters detailing your organization’s awareness of the project and your support.
I also need to know if you would like to schedule an interview for the documentary.
From Elected Officials
I need to know availability of funding as well if you would like to be part of the documentary.
From WTC Companies
I need current contact information.
Together we can get this done and have a peaceful and serene memorial to all those impacted by 9/11 completed by the 10th Anniversary.
Below please find a link to background information.
Please send all responses to info@where-to-turn.org or 718-966-6531
Thank You
Dennis
HEARTS AND HANDS MEMORIAL
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=21
Fundraising Opportunity
http://www.where-to-turn.org/lobaido_poster.php
We will be beginning our fundraising efforts and I have also been asked to meet with the WTC Memorial Foundation to discuss their recent press release and the similarities to the Hearts and Hands Memorial.
To that end I would like to request the following.
From 9/11 Family Members
I need letters of support as well as 8x10 photos of your lost loved ones.
I also need current contact information for mailings.
I also need to know if you would like to be interviewed for the documentary and if you would attend an exhibition of the United in Memory 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt during the anniversary weekend this September.
From 9/11 Family Groups and Responder Unions
I need letters detailing your organization’s awareness of the project and your support.
I also need to know if you would like to schedule an interview for the documentary.
From Elected Officials
I need to know availability of funding as well if you would like to be part of the documentary.
From WTC Companies
I need current contact information.
Together we can get this done and have a peaceful and serene memorial to all those impacted by 9/11 completed by the 10th Anniversary.
Below please find a link to background information.
Please send all responses to info@where-to-turn.org or 718-966-6531
Thank You
Dennis
HEARTS AND HANDS MEMORIAL
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=21
Fundraising Opportunity
http://www.where-to-turn.org/lobaido_poster.php
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THINGS COULDN'T GET WORSE
Just when you think things couldn't get worse......they do.
What is going on in Albany is an outright embarrassment.
Our Legislature in New York looks more like something out of MTV's the "Real World" or Monday Night Raw than a governing body.
We have a cast of characters that are only out for themselves and what's worse is we pay their salaries.
Can you imagine any of these people holding a real job?
You know like the rest of us;
Up early
Commuting every day at our own expense.
Working at least 9 to 5 with many of us working 50 weeks a year or holding second jobs to make ends meet.
Actually having to deliver on our responsibilities.
I can only speak for myself but if I told my boss that I decided I wasn't going to come in because I couldn't get along with my co-workers my next stop would be the unemployment line.
Republicans or Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives it doesn't matter, they were elected to represent the people of New York and the bottom line is they are not doing their job.
And while the newspapers are happy because they finally found a story other than the Astor trial (does anyone really care?) other things are happening that will have an effect on us all.
Very quietly the Federal government is relaxing its caps on salaries for firms receiving bailouts from the government.
And it is just a matter of time when they do the same with bonuses?
Oh but all is well because they are going to appoint a "Pay Czar" to keep an eye on things.
When in doubt appoint a "Czar"
You cannot make this stuff up.
And back at Ground Zero they entire rebuilding plan is about to fall apart because the Governor spends more time on damage control than actually governing.
The PA, the MTA and all of the other Authorities continue to be exempt from governmental rules but are the first ones with their hands out for taxpayer money when they run out of cash.
And God forbid anyone requires that these agencies funded with taxpayer money be made to make their books public.
We all know they would never lie!
But I digress.
The bottom line is that we have set the bar so low when it comes to holding government responsible that we have created this mess.
The background of many of our elected officials at all levels would make the Cincinnati Bengals blush.
We need to raise the bar.
We need those in government for the right reasons to step up and take the lead.
We need them to agree to a political pre nup.
We need them to put the people before their party.
Most of all we need them to be representatives not politicians.
And the New York State Senate would be a good place to start.
What is going on in Albany is an outright embarrassment.
Our Legislature in New York looks more like something out of MTV's the "Real World" or Monday Night Raw than a governing body.
We have a cast of characters that are only out for themselves and what's worse is we pay their salaries.
Can you imagine any of these people holding a real job?
You know like the rest of us;
Up early
Commuting every day at our own expense.
Working at least 9 to 5 with many of us working 50 weeks a year or holding second jobs to make ends meet.
Actually having to deliver on our responsibilities.
I can only speak for myself but if I told my boss that I decided I wasn't going to come in because I couldn't get along with my co-workers my next stop would be the unemployment line.
Republicans or Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives it doesn't matter, they were elected to represent the people of New York and the bottom line is they are not doing their job.
And while the newspapers are happy because they finally found a story other than the Astor trial (does anyone really care?) other things are happening that will have an effect on us all.
Very quietly the Federal government is relaxing its caps on salaries for firms receiving bailouts from the government.
And it is just a matter of time when they do the same with bonuses?
Oh but all is well because they are going to appoint a "Pay Czar" to keep an eye on things.
When in doubt appoint a "Czar"
You cannot make this stuff up.
And back at Ground Zero they entire rebuilding plan is about to fall apart because the Governor spends more time on damage control than actually governing.
The PA, the MTA and all of the other Authorities continue to be exempt from governmental rules but are the first ones with their hands out for taxpayer money when they run out of cash.
And God forbid anyone requires that these agencies funded with taxpayer money be made to make their books public.
We all know they would never lie!
But I digress.
The bottom line is that we have set the bar so low when it comes to holding government responsible that we have created this mess.
The background of many of our elected officials at all levels would make the Cincinnati Bengals blush.
We need to raise the bar.
We need those in government for the right reasons to step up and take the lead.
We need them to agree to a political pre nup.
We need them to put the people before their party.
Most of all we need them to be representatives not politicians.
And the New York State Senate would be a good place to start.
FOR OUR FRIENDS IN ALBANY
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
(WITH APOLOGIES TO STEPHEN SONDHEIM)
ISN'T IT RICH
BEYOND COMPARE
FLIP FLOPPING EVERY DAY
TO GET THEIR SHARE
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
WHO'S IN CHARGE NOW
SO YOU DON'T APPROVE
TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, LOCK ALL THE DOORS
WHAT'S YOUR NEXT MOVE
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
THE HELL WITH THE LAW
MORE PORK FOR MY FRIENDS
TOTAL DISREGARD FOR US ALL
IT NEVER ENDS
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
AND WHO'S TO BLAME
IT WOULD BE ME AND YOU
WE VOTED ALL OF THEM IN
KNOWING WHAT THEY COULD DO
SO WE'RE STUCK WITH CLOWNS
VERY RICH CLOWNS
YES THEY ARE ALL HERE
IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE
GET RID OF THEM ALL
MAKE THEM ALL GET REAL JOBS
WHEN WE VOTE IN THE FALL
CAUSE WE DON'T NEED CLOWNS
THERE OUGHT NOT BE CLOWNS
WELL, MAYBE NEXT YEAR
(WITH APOLOGIES TO STEPHEN SONDHEIM)
ISN'T IT RICH
BEYOND COMPARE
FLIP FLOPPING EVERY DAY
TO GET THEIR SHARE
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
WHO'S IN CHARGE NOW
SO YOU DON'T APPROVE
TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, LOCK ALL THE DOORS
WHAT'S YOUR NEXT MOVE
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
THE HELL WITH THE LAW
MORE PORK FOR MY FRIENDS
TOTAL DISREGARD FOR US ALL
IT NEVER ENDS
THROW OUT THE CLOWNS
AND WHO'S TO BLAME
IT WOULD BE ME AND YOU
WE VOTED ALL OF THEM IN
KNOWING WHAT THEY COULD DO
SO WE'RE STUCK WITH CLOWNS
VERY RICH CLOWNS
YES THEY ARE ALL HERE
IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE
GET RID OF THEM ALL
MAKE THEM ALL GET REAL JOBS
WHEN WE VOTE IN THE FALL
CAUSE WE DON'T NEED CLOWNS
THERE OUGHT NOT BE CLOWNS
WELL, MAYBE NEXT YEAR
FAMILY MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE IN MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
To All,
I am forwarding this on because I have made a commitment to pass on all 9/11 information and I really do want the memorial/museum at Ground Zero to succeed.
That being said I find it very disheartening that for the past five years we have asked the mayor and the World Trade Center Foundation to assist us with the hearts and Hands Memorial.
A Memorial that is going to include 8 x 10 photos of all the 9/11 Victims in a corridor of memories that will also allow family members to record memories.
Our numerous e-mails and letters have gone unanswered and now we receive this.
We are moving forward with the Hearts and Hands Memorial an along with our Corridor of Memories we will house the United in Memory 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt and a 21,000 square foot memorial garden..
We hope that you will continue to support our effort to complete this project by 9/11/11.
For more information please click the link below.
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=21
Dennis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM INVITES VICTIMS’ FAMILY MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE IN CREATION OF MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
Family Members Contributions of Objects, Text, and Recorded Memories to Make Up Content for Exhibition Honoring Each Individual Life Lost;
Outreach Effort Begins to Verify Listing and Arrangement of Memorial Names
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum today began inviting 9/11 victims’ family members to contribute objects, text and recorded memories that will make up the content of one of the Museum’s key exhibitions — the Memorial Exhibition. The Memorial Exhibition will allow visitors to the Museum to learn more about each individual who was killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 attacks. The Memorial & Museum also began an important outreach effort to verify the listing and arrangement of each victims’ name for the 9/11 Memorial.
“We are asking those who knew these individuals best — their family, friends, and colleagues — to help ensure that the memory of each person is preserved through the Memorial Exhibition,” 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. “Objects, photographs, recorded memories and text will create moving portraits that celebrate each individual life and allow visitors to relate to those who died.
“The next-of-kin’s participation in arranging and verifying the names to be inscribed on the Memorial is vitally important. We plan to work with the information provided by families to place the names in a meaningful way that recognizes relationships and friendships,” Daniels said.
“The Memorial Exhibition will underscore the value we place on individual lives,” 9/11 Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald said. “The thousands of faces and memories demonstrate the impact of terrorism on individuals, families and communities. The exhibition clearly shows that terrorism is not an abstraction, reinforcing a core message of the Memorial Museum - that the indefensible acts of terrorism affect real people.”
The Museum’s goal is to collect at least one photograph or portrait image for each person killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks, as well as written and oral remembrances, commemorative text and personal objects, in order to develop the Memorial Exhibition and build a robust, accompanying biographical archive. There are a number of ways that the public, whether parents, siblings, spouses, co-workers, or friends of victims, can contribute.
Images, written remembrances, and commemorative text can now be submitted through a new special section on the Memorial & Museum website, http://newmuseumme.national911memorial.org/. Contributors to the website will be able to create unique profiles to upload images, digital files, and text that can be continually accessed by the contributor and will become part of the Museum’s permanent collection. This material can also be submitted by mail.
In addition, the public can share images and text about their loved ones through the “9/11 Living Memorial” project, an interactive, digitized, and searchable database designed to commemorate individual lives and stories, that will be a central component of the Museum’s archive. The Memorial & Museum has established an official collaborative partnership with leading family advocacy group VOICES of September 11th to support the “9/11 Living Memorial.”
The Memorial & Museum has also launched a new feature, the “Call to Remember” initiative which allows people to record 10-minute remembrances about their loved ones by phone at (866) 582-5613 (toll free) or (646) 248-6225 (local). Callers are encouraged to imagine that they are speaking with a friend and to share information that will help others to understand the individual who died. Remembrances can be recorded in any language.
The “Call to Remember” initiative uses web services provided by Twilio, a company headquartered in San Francisco, California, which supplies telephony infrastructure web service "in the cloud", enabling web programmers to integrate phone calls into their applications. With Twilio, developers can initiate and receive real-time phone calls using existing web application frameworks such as PHP, Java, .NET, Python, Ruby, C#, ASP, and more.
Excerpts from the “Call to Remember” oral remembrances, as well as from the Memorial & Museum’s oral history program and a partnership with the national spoken history initiative StoryCorps, will be a core component of the Memorial Exhibition and will be used to support other Museum exhibitions.
The Memorial Exhibition will commemorate the lives of those who perished on September 11, 2001 and February 26 1993, and will provide visitors with the opportunity to learn about the men, women, and children who died. The Museum plans call for visitors to enter the exhibition along a corridor in which nearly 3,000 victims’ photographs form a “Wall of Faces,” intended to communicate the scale of human loss. Nearby, interactive tables will allow visitors to discover additional information about each person, including photographs, recollections by family and friends, artifacts, and the location of individual names on the Memorial pools. Rotating selections of personal artifacts will also be featured. An adjoining chamber will present profiles of individual victims in a dignified sequence, through photographs, biographical information, and audio recordings.
The Museum is currently developing a primary interpretive exhibition that will focus on what happened on September 11, 2001, how these events transpired, and detail the extraordinary response — locally, nationally, and internationally. The exhibition will allow visitors to contemplate what it means to live in a “post-9/11 world.” Powerful artifacts, ranging from the monumental to the intimate; documentary photographs and film footage; and first-person narratives will combine to relate a story of tragedy and survival, and of selflessness and courage.
The Museum will also incorporate as exhibition elements a variety of existing materials that encompass an extraordinary range of size, weight and media. These include: remnants of the World Trade Center structures attesting to the enormity of the buildings and the forces of destruction—multi-ton pieces of steel currently in the care of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; intimate mementos that mark individual experiences; paper-based and mixed media materials detailing some of the aftermath of the events; vast collections of photographic, video and born-digital imagery by both amateurs and professionals; oral histories and other audio materials; artistic expressions made in tribute to the lives lost and to the events and their emotional impact; and in-situ physical remnants of the site including the surviving Slurry Wall and the truncated box column remnants.
The Museum’s exhibitions are currently in design development. In April 2007, Thinc Design, Inc., in partnership with Local Projects, LLC, was chosen as the lead exhibition design firm for the Memorial Museum.
To download new renderings of the Memorial Exhibition, visit www.national911memorial.org/renderings.
Outreach Effort Begins to Verify Listing and Arrangement of Memorial Names
The Memorial & Museum is asking the next-of-kin of each victim to participate in the important process of ensuring that all names are inscribed correctly on the 9/11 Memorial. Over the next month, the next-of-kin of each victim should receive an official Memorial Name Verification and Arrangement package in the mail that includes a form to verify the inscription of the name and to provide other information that will help to guide the arrangement.
The names of the nearly 3,000 victims will be inscribed on bronze parapets surrounding the Memorial pools, which sit in the footprints of the Twin Towers. The Memorial pools will each be nearly one acre in size. The names will be stencil-cut into the parapets, allowing visitors to look through the names at the water and to create paper impressions or rubbings of individual names. At night, light will shine up through the voids created by each letter.
Names placed around the North Pool will include those who worked in or were visiting the North Tower (1 WTC); crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 11; those who were killed in the February 26, 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center.
Around the South Pool, names will include those who worked in or were visiting the South Tower (2 WTC) and all other areas of the World Trade Center complex and surrounding areas; crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 175; those who worked in or were visiting the Pentagon; crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 77; crew and passengers of United Airlines Flight 93.
Within these groupings, the names of those who shared the same affiliation will be inscribed together (such as co-workers from the same company, flight crew of the planes, or people visiting the Towers together). Additionally, the forms being sent to the next-of-kin will ask if there are specific victims’ names they would like to be inscribed adjacent to their loved ones — whether family members, friends, or co-workers.
Visitors to the Memorial will be able to locate individual names through on-site kiosks, staff and volunteers, online websites, and printed directories.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the not-for-profit corporation created to oversee the design, raise the funds, and program and operate the Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site. The Memorial & Museum will be located on eight of the 16 acres of the site.
The Memorial will remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools that reside in the footprints of the original Twin Towers, surrounded by a plaza of oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a design competition that included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations.
The Museum will display monumental artifacts associated with the events of September 11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of September 11 and its aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national, and international communities; and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.
Donations can be made through and more information can be found at the Memorial & Museum’s website, http://www.national911memorial.org/, or by calling 1-877-WTC-GIVE.
# # #
Contact: Lynn Rasic/Michelle Breslauer, 212-312-8800
Click here to download this release
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006 ║p (212) 312-8800 ║f (212) 227-7931
http://www.national911memorial.org/
I am forwarding this on because I have made a commitment to pass on all 9/11 information and I really do want the memorial/museum at Ground Zero to succeed.
That being said I find it very disheartening that for the past five years we have asked the mayor and the World Trade Center Foundation to assist us with the hearts and Hands Memorial.
A Memorial that is going to include 8 x 10 photos of all the 9/11 Victims in a corridor of memories that will also allow family members to record memories.
Our numerous e-mails and letters have gone unanswered and now we receive this.
We are moving forward with the Hearts and Hands Memorial an along with our Corridor of Memories we will house the United in Memory 9/11 Victims Memorial Quilt and a 21,000 square foot memorial garden..
We hope that you will continue to support our effort to complete this project by 9/11/11.
For more information please click the link below.
http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/index.php?c=21
Dennis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM INVITES VICTIMS’ FAMILY MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE IN CREATION OF MEMORIAL EXHIBITION
Family Members Contributions of Objects, Text, and Recorded Memories to Make Up Content for Exhibition Honoring Each Individual Life Lost;
Outreach Effort Begins to Verify Listing and Arrangement of Memorial Names
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum today began inviting 9/11 victims’ family members to contribute objects, text and recorded memories that will make up the content of one of the Museum’s key exhibitions — the Memorial Exhibition. The Memorial Exhibition will allow visitors to the Museum to learn more about each individual who was killed in the September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 attacks. The Memorial & Museum also began an important outreach effort to verify the listing and arrangement of each victims’ name for the 9/11 Memorial.
“We are asking those who knew these individuals best — their family, friends, and colleagues — to help ensure that the memory of each person is preserved through the Memorial Exhibition,” 9/11 Memorial President Joe Daniels said. “Objects, photographs, recorded memories and text will create moving portraits that celebrate each individual life and allow visitors to relate to those who died.
“The next-of-kin’s participation in arranging and verifying the names to be inscribed on the Memorial is vitally important. We plan to work with the information provided by families to place the names in a meaningful way that recognizes relationships and friendships,” Daniels said.
“The Memorial Exhibition will underscore the value we place on individual lives,” 9/11 Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald said. “The thousands of faces and memories demonstrate the impact of terrorism on individuals, families and communities. The exhibition clearly shows that terrorism is not an abstraction, reinforcing a core message of the Memorial Museum - that the indefensible acts of terrorism affect real people.”
The Museum’s goal is to collect at least one photograph or portrait image for each person killed in the 2001 and 1993 attacks, as well as written and oral remembrances, commemorative text and personal objects, in order to develop the Memorial Exhibition and build a robust, accompanying biographical archive. There are a number of ways that the public, whether parents, siblings, spouses, co-workers, or friends of victims, can contribute.
Images, written remembrances, and commemorative text can now be submitted through a new special section on the Memorial & Museum website, http://newmuseumme.national911memorial.org/. Contributors to the website will be able to create unique profiles to upload images, digital files, and text that can be continually accessed by the contributor and will become part of the Museum’s permanent collection. This material can also be submitted by mail.
In addition, the public can share images and text about their loved ones through the “9/11 Living Memorial” project, an interactive, digitized, and searchable database designed to commemorate individual lives and stories, that will be a central component of the Museum’s archive. The Memorial & Museum has established an official collaborative partnership with leading family advocacy group VOICES of September 11th to support the “9/11 Living Memorial.”
The Memorial & Museum has also launched a new feature, the “Call to Remember” initiative which allows people to record 10-minute remembrances about their loved ones by phone at (866) 582-5613 (toll free) or (646) 248-6225 (local). Callers are encouraged to imagine that they are speaking with a friend and to share information that will help others to understand the individual who died. Remembrances can be recorded in any language.
The “Call to Remember” initiative uses web services provided by Twilio, a company headquartered in San Francisco, California, which supplies telephony infrastructure web service "in the cloud", enabling web programmers to integrate phone calls into their applications. With Twilio, developers can initiate and receive real-time phone calls using existing web application frameworks such as PHP, Java, .NET, Python, Ruby, C#, ASP, and more.
Excerpts from the “Call to Remember” oral remembrances, as well as from the Memorial & Museum’s oral history program and a partnership with the national spoken history initiative StoryCorps, will be a core component of the Memorial Exhibition and will be used to support other Museum exhibitions.
The Memorial Exhibition will commemorate the lives of those who perished on September 11, 2001 and February 26 1993, and will provide visitors with the opportunity to learn about the men, women, and children who died. The Museum plans call for visitors to enter the exhibition along a corridor in which nearly 3,000 victims’ photographs form a “Wall of Faces,” intended to communicate the scale of human loss. Nearby, interactive tables will allow visitors to discover additional information about each person, including photographs, recollections by family and friends, artifacts, and the location of individual names on the Memorial pools. Rotating selections of personal artifacts will also be featured. An adjoining chamber will present profiles of individual victims in a dignified sequence, through photographs, biographical information, and audio recordings.
The Museum is currently developing a primary interpretive exhibition that will focus on what happened on September 11, 2001, how these events transpired, and detail the extraordinary response — locally, nationally, and internationally. The exhibition will allow visitors to contemplate what it means to live in a “post-9/11 world.” Powerful artifacts, ranging from the monumental to the intimate; documentary photographs and film footage; and first-person narratives will combine to relate a story of tragedy and survival, and of selflessness and courage.
The Museum will also incorporate as exhibition elements a variety of existing materials that encompass an extraordinary range of size, weight and media. These include: remnants of the World Trade Center structures attesting to the enormity of the buildings and the forces of destruction—multi-ton pieces of steel currently in the care of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; intimate mementos that mark individual experiences; paper-based and mixed media materials detailing some of the aftermath of the events; vast collections of photographic, video and born-digital imagery by both amateurs and professionals; oral histories and other audio materials; artistic expressions made in tribute to the lives lost and to the events and their emotional impact; and in-situ physical remnants of the site including the surviving Slurry Wall and the truncated box column remnants.
The Museum’s exhibitions are currently in design development. In April 2007, Thinc Design, Inc., in partnership with Local Projects, LLC, was chosen as the lead exhibition design firm for the Memorial Museum.
To download new renderings of the Memorial Exhibition, visit www.national911memorial.org/renderings.
Outreach Effort Begins to Verify Listing and Arrangement of Memorial Names
The Memorial & Museum is asking the next-of-kin of each victim to participate in the important process of ensuring that all names are inscribed correctly on the 9/11 Memorial. Over the next month, the next-of-kin of each victim should receive an official Memorial Name Verification and Arrangement package in the mail that includes a form to verify the inscription of the name and to provide other information that will help to guide the arrangement.
The names of the nearly 3,000 victims will be inscribed on bronze parapets surrounding the Memorial pools, which sit in the footprints of the Twin Towers. The Memorial pools will each be nearly one acre in size. The names will be stencil-cut into the parapets, allowing visitors to look through the names at the water and to create paper impressions or rubbings of individual names. At night, light will shine up through the voids created by each letter.
Names placed around the North Pool will include those who worked in or were visiting the North Tower (1 WTC); crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 11; those who were killed in the February 26, 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center.
Around the South Pool, names will include those who worked in or were visiting the South Tower (2 WTC) and all other areas of the World Trade Center complex and surrounding areas; crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 175; those who worked in or were visiting the Pentagon; crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 77; crew and passengers of United Airlines Flight 93.
Within these groupings, the names of those who shared the same affiliation will be inscribed together (such as co-workers from the same company, flight crew of the planes, or people visiting the Towers together). Additionally, the forms being sent to the next-of-kin will ask if there are specific victims’ names they would like to be inscribed adjacent to their loved ones — whether family members, friends, or co-workers.
Visitors to the Memorial will be able to locate individual names through on-site kiosks, staff and volunteers, online websites, and printed directories.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the not-for-profit corporation created to oversee the design, raise the funds, and program and operate the Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center site. The Memorial & Museum will be located on eight of the 16 acres of the site.
The Memorial will remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools that reside in the footprints of the original Twin Towers, surrounded by a plaza of oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a design competition that included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations.
The Museum will display monumental artifacts associated with the events of September 11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of September 11 and its aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national, and international communities; and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.
Donations can be made through and more information can be found at the Memorial & Museum’s website, http://www.national911memorial.org/, or by calling 1-877-WTC-GIVE.
# # #
Contact: Lynn Rasic/Michelle Breslauer, 212-312-8800
Click here to download this release
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006 ║p (212) 312-8800 ║f (212) 227-7931
http://www.national911memorial.org/
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The No Rules Blues
I may be showing my age but when I was growing up we had rules.
Whether it be at home or when we were out playing with our friends there
were always rules.
If you hit the ball past the second sewer and it went into Mrs. Guido's
yard it was a double.
You were only allowed to rush the passer after 10 Mississippis.
You were expected to be home by a certain hour and if you were late you
were grounded.
You were taught to respect your neighbors and nobody ever called their
friend's parents by their first names.
You never wanted to be brought home by the police because you were more
afraid of what your parents would do to you if you were.
Life was much simpler back then because of these very simple rules.
Unfortunately rules went the way of black and white TV's and for the few
rules that still do exist, it appears that playing by them is now the
exception rather than the norm.
Now we could spend hours debating why this happened but the fact of the
matter is that it did.
My take is that the current generation has seen nothing but rule
breakers from the top on down so they don't see any reason to follow
rules.
We have a Supreme Court that has made a habit out of making laws instead
of enforcing those that exist.
We have elections to put laws into place and then we have elected
officials ignore or overturn them when they no longer suit them. (Did
anybody say term limits?).
We have cabinet members that don't pay their taxes.
We have millionaire elected officials living in rent controlled
apartments.
We have half our athletes looking to renegotiate their contracts every
year with the rest pumping themselves full of steroids or human growth
hormones to get an edge.
We have even changed the basic rule of work hard, do a good job and you
will succeed to cook the books, bring your company to bankruptcy and you
will get a bailout.
And our government is the biggest offender continuing to pay contractors
who run over budget and do not deliver on time. (Just take a look at the
WTC).
And the list goes on and on and the new mantra appears to be:
Rule 1 Don't follow any rules because nobody will hold you accountable
if you don't
Rule 2 Refer to Rule 1.
The bottom line is that if there are no rules or no penalty for breaking
rules there is very little hope for our future.
Our Founding Fathers knew that the country that they were creating would
not last without some basic rules and the Bill of Rights was created.
It was a good idea back then.
Maybe we should give it another shot.
Whether it be at home or when we were out playing with our friends there
were always rules.
If you hit the ball past the second sewer and it went into Mrs. Guido's
yard it was a double.
You were only allowed to rush the passer after 10 Mississippis.
You were expected to be home by a certain hour and if you were late you
were grounded.
You were taught to respect your neighbors and nobody ever called their
friend's parents by their first names.
You never wanted to be brought home by the police because you were more
afraid of what your parents would do to you if you were.
Life was much simpler back then because of these very simple rules.
Unfortunately rules went the way of black and white TV's and for the few
rules that still do exist, it appears that playing by them is now the
exception rather than the norm.
Now we could spend hours debating why this happened but the fact of the
matter is that it did.
My take is that the current generation has seen nothing but rule
breakers from the top on down so they don't see any reason to follow
rules.
We have a Supreme Court that has made a habit out of making laws instead
of enforcing those that exist.
We have elections to put laws into place and then we have elected
officials ignore or overturn them when they no longer suit them. (Did
anybody say term limits?).
We have cabinet members that don't pay their taxes.
We have millionaire elected officials living in rent controlled
apartments.
We have half our athletes looking to renegotiate their contracts every
year with the rest pumping themselves full of steroids or human growth
hormones to get an edge.
We have even changed the basic rule of work hard, do a good job and you
will succeed to cook the books, bring your company to bankruptcy and you
will get a bailout.
And our government is the biggest offender continuing to pay contractors
who run over budget and do not deliver on time. (Just take a look at the
WTC).
And the list goes on and on and the new mantra appears to be:
Rule 1 Don't follow any rules because nobody will hold you accountable
if you don't
Rule 2 Refer to Rule 1.
The bottom line is that if there are no rules or no penalty for breaking
rules there is very little hope for our future.
Our Founding Fathers knew that the country that they were creating would
not last without some basic rules and the Bill of Rights was created.
It was a good idea back then.
Maybe we should give it another shot.
Monday, June 1, 2009
"Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege"
I was watching a show recently where they were reviewing some of the worst shows ever on TV.
My Mother the Car, Cop Rock, The Jerry Springer Show and the list went on and on.
Hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and most of them didn't even last a season.
So called experts who were paid very well because "they had their pulse on the consumer and knew what the viewer wanted to see"
And most of these people kept right on working following one failure after another and some of them made an entire career based on one success.
My initial thought was how could these networks be so stupid?
Didn't anyone of these execs see how stupid some of these ideas were?
How could have anyone in charge actually let these shows on the air?
But then I began to think of where we have come as a country over the same period of time.
We have spent hundreds of billions on ideas that were just as bad.
Some of our elected officials have made careers based on bad decisions and some of them never even had one success as did some of their TV counterparts.
The problem is that we seem to set the bar so low and have allowed mediocrity to become the gold standard.
Scandals, improprieties, or a total disregard of the law, it does not seem to matter as we just keep voting these same people into office.
Every four to six year we are promised change or we are told that things are going to be different and we take the bait, hook, line and sinker.
So we continue to spend hundreds of billions on military aid in other countries but can't find any funding to take care of our returning veterans. (Wasn't it just a few years ago when the Walter Reed scandal broke that all those in office said things were going to be different).
Our infrastructure is collapsing across the country and we can't find the money to support it but our government is going to soon be a majority shareholder in numerous banks, financial institutions and even GM.
We have money to finance bonuses for executives that were at the helm during the worst financial collapse in history but we do not have money to properly pay our teachers who are our only hope for our children and our future.
We continue to write checks for entitlements and bailouts instead of developing work programs to put the unemployed to work.
God forbid we should revisit things that actually worked to get us out of the last Depression.
But things will not change as long as we show some intelligence when we go into the voting booth.
As it stands now we only have ourselves to blame.
While everyone is entitled to be stupid, for too long too many of us have been abusing the privilege.
My Mother the Car, Cop Rock, The Jerry Springer Show and the list went on and on.
Hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and most of them didn't even last a season.
So called experts who were paid very well because "they had their pulse on the consumer and knew what the viewer wanted to see"
And most of these people kept right on working following one failure after another and some of them made an entire career based on one success.
My initial thought was how could these networks be so stupid?
Didn't anyone of these execs see how stupid some of these ideas were?
How could have anyone in charge actually let these shows on the air?
But then I began to think of where we have come as a country over the same period of time.
We have spent hundreds of billions on ideas that were just as bad.
Some of our elected officials have made careers based on bad decisions and some of them never even had one success as did some of their TV counterparts.
The problem is that we seem to set the bar so low and have allowed mediocrity to become the gold standard.
Scandals, improprieties, or a total disregard of the law, it does not seem to matter as we just keep voting these same people into office.
Every four to six year we are promised change or we are told that things are going to be different and we take the bait, hook, line and sinker.
So we continue to spend hundreds of billions on military aid in other countries but can't find any funding to take care of our returning veterans. (Wasn't it just a few years ago when the Walter Reed scandal broke that all those in office said things were going to be different).
Our infrastructure is collapsing across the country and we can't find the money to support it but our government is going to soon be a majority shareholder in numerous banks, financial institutions and even GM.
We have money to finance bonuses for executives that were at the helm during the worst financial collapse in history but we do not have money to properly pay our teachers who are our only hope for our children and our future.
We continue to write checks for entitlements and bailouts instead of developing work programs to put the unemployed to work.
God forbid we should revisit things that actually worked to get us out of the last Depression.
But things will not change as long as we show some intelligence when we go into the voting booth.
As it stands now we only have ourselves to blame.
While everyone is entitled to be stupid, for too long too many of us have been abusing the privilege.
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