Adding Insult to Injury

You just have to wonder about some people in America...

Imagine if you will someone proposing the Holocaust Memorial structure built in the shape of a swastika. Obscene isn't it. So when the plans for the United Airlines Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, PA was announced you can imagine how some people would be outraged that is was going to be in the shape of a crescent and it was facing Mecca, to add insult to injury it was going to be called the"Crescent of Embrace".

[See this FOX News article for a graphical representation]

form the article:
Some critics say its crescent-shaped design call to mind Islam or subtly include the hijackers alongside the passengers and crew.

The National Park Service, which is managing the construction of the memorial, denied those claims, but changed the design to more of a circle, and dropped the name.

Please... OK, if they are being upfront why would they use the word "Crescent" in the first place? Another feature is a separate section of the wall – centered exactly on the bisector of the giant crescent – that is in the exact position of the star on an Islamic flag.

My guess is that somewhere in all of this is the attitude that America is to blame for victimizing the Islamic world for all these years - that the hijackers had legitimate grievances and they just chose an inappropriate way the redress these grievances.

The architectural firm Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles claims Islam has nothing to do with the memorial and that a vast majority of the families of the victims are endorsing the design. I would just ask them the same question I asked at the beginning of this post... Such a design should never have made it off the drawing board.



CW