NYC Letter: Re-Embraced Crescent

Remember the Crescent of Embrace? Well, Paul Murdoch is betting you've forgotten all about it.

Mr. Murdoch is the creative force behind the Flight 93 "Crescent of Embrace" Memorial to be built near Shanksville, PA -- a great big crescent of red maples "embracing" the crash site of Flight 93. Flight 93, which Mr. Murdoch is not too keen on you recalling, was highjacked on September 11, 2001 by Islamites, who after a few establishing murders in the service of Allah, were overpowered by the passengers. At the cost of their lives, the passengers foiled the Islamites' plan to turn the commercial jetliner into a lethal missile.

When Mr. Murdoch debuted his "Crescent of Embrace" design last year it was roundly criticized as being inappropriate, obvious, and failing to grasp who the memorial was for, to wit, the passenger victims, not the Islamite terrorists. Mr. Murdoch argued that although his crescent was the same as the Islamic crescent in shape and color it was symbolically altogether different.

Mr. Murdoch's protests notwithstanding, the negative public response was sufficiently overwhelming that the National Parks Service, which likes to move these projects along, actually withheld its wave-along approval and sent the design back to Mr. Murdoch for "revisions".

The wait is over.

The new design features [Pause.] a BIGGER crescent! A bigger crescent that coincidentally faces Mecca like a cocked-up mihrab. Hhmmm, well, Mr. Murdoch may have missed the point of the criticisms. Or perhaps he thought no one remembers yesterday's news.

If you think this memorial an insult to the victims on Flight 93, we ask you to join us in letting the Flight 93 Memorial Project know. They are collecting comments here through August 14, 2006.

If you are short on time or short on words, we have drafted text that you can use as is or improve with your indignation.

This design is wholly inappropriate. The Memorial Project has made no substantive changes from last year's earlier design. It has addressed none of the criticisms, primarily the use of a red crescent, that were made at that time.

Do not defame the dead victims with this design honoring their killers.

Regards,
[Your Name]