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Protesting
victims' treatment
Supporting 9/11 families
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Thank you for publishing the story of the families that
are still waiting for the remains of their loved ones from
the Fresh Kills, N.Y., landfill [“Never to forget,”
February]. I immediately signed the petition and
hope others will do the same.
Joyce Walters
Renton, Wash
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The following Email was received from the Elijah Interfaith Institute
Dear Thomas Meehan,
I was very upset by your plight, and the continuing suffering that it
constitutes. I have visited the website and signed the petition. May
God be with you and with your families.
Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Jerusalem
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Friday, February 13, 2004 |
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Holy
Ground
What constitutes holy ground?
Places are made holy by their being set aside for the use of God, or by
great sacrifice that is made there, or by the intersection of life in this
world with life in the next that occurs in that place. Religious edifices,
great battlegrounds and cemeteries are holy ground.
Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address expresses in just a few words what
the nature of holy ground is. Lincoln understood that while he dedicated
the Gettysburg battlefield, is was consecrated by the lives lost there.
Holy ground is a place sanctified by a certain presence. It is a place to
visit, a place to be quiet, a place to be in touch with things that are
larger than life.
On September 11, 2001, over two thousand people of many tongues and
cultures lost their lives when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade
Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, and into the earth of
the State of Pennsylvania. The instant those events occurred, those places
became holy ground. They are like altars marking the entrance places of
heaven. The people of New York, of the District of Columbia, and of
Pennsylvania have struggled to provide fitting memorials at those places,
memorials that provide a dignified reminder of the sacrifices made there,
memorials that give families a way to remain connected to their loved
ones.
Authorities in New York worked with great care at the Fresh
Kills Landfill on Staten Island to sift the debris of the WTC for
human remains so that they might be returned to their loved ones for
proper burial. Still, after all the searching and all the sifting, the
remains of many were never found. The probability of their being mixed in
with the sifted debris is very high. Yet, authorities in New York have
left the pile of sifted debris exposed to the elements, where it is eroded
day by day. The families of those whose remains have not been found are
outraged.
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WTC FAMILIES FOR PROPER
BURIAL 
