Friday, September 09, 2005

These people need a clue

I am about to voice my displeasure to the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior once I find the appropriate email addresses, but at least I've sent an insensitive email to the designer of the entry that won this competition for the design of the Flight 93 National Memorial. (See The Valiant Elephant's post below.) The "Crescent" is a grove of red maple trees, and the "star" is a cluster of red and sugar maple trees. Looks pretty conspicuous, even blatant, no? I was pissed when I saw the picture. Here's what I sent:
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 16:35:06 (PDT)
From: "DW"
Subject: Crescent of Embrace
To: info@paulmurdocharchitects.com
I am deeply saddened by your design for the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, PA. You could not possibly be unaware that the crescent moon with a star is the internationally-recognized symbol of the faith of Islam. Is it your intention to honor the terrorist hijackers? Your design appears to be the equivalent of putting a swastika over a holocaust memorial site. I am thoroughly disgusted, and would expect others to be equally disgusted when they discover your plan. If your "Crescent of Embrace" memorial goes forward, it will further victimize Americans. I can only imagine your motivation - perhaps it is to turn Americans into hate-filled terrorists, as you must expect the trees in this memorial to be torched.
UPDATE: Contact information for the National Park Service is here. When I tried to submit an email message from this page, it said "URL Not Found," so I sent a fax instead.

You can call the Superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial at (814) 443-4557 or send a fax to (814) 443-2180.

UPDATE 2: (Via Bluemerle) In case you had lingering doubts, this should lay those to rest. Shoot an arrow on the bow of the crescent and it flies along the path of the qibla, which is the imaginary line to Mecca that Muslims align themselves with when they pray. That's right - the "Crescent of Embrace" would point to Mecca.

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