|
The decision to single out 9/11 rescuers for special recognition at the World Trade Center memorial marks one of the few things officials have gotten right at Ground Zero.
The original design for "Reflecting Absence," Michael Arad's tribute to those who died there that day, would have added one more outrage - lumping firefighters, police and other rescue workers together with office workers and visitors.
That would have obscured a key difference between the two groups: The rescuers didn't get caught in the catastrophe by happenstance, as did civilians. They rushed to the scene voluntarily - and died trying to save others.
That's an enormous distinction, one that deserves to be noted for posterity - even if only to show future generations the way America honors its heroes.
Under the new plan, police officers and firefighters will be listed apart from the others, grouped with their units.
Their ranks, however, will not be noted. Which is a shame - because their sacrifices surely merit such recognition.
Of course, some loved ones of civilian victims opposed segregating the names in any way. They claimed that separate groupings would make the loss of civilians seem less significant.
We never bought that argument. Anyway, if the visitors to the memorial realize that fallen cops and firefighters are listed separately for a reason, that will be a good thing.
Notably, Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association (which saw 343 firefighters fall on 9/11), has voiced support for the new plan.
"This decision," he wrote in Friday's Post, "will let the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation finally move forward with an appropriate memorial." If he's satisfied, then the compromise plan seems reasonable.
As for the memorial itself, we're still profoundly troubled by its astronomical cost - $500 million-plus seems extravagant.
Yet New Yorkers are exhausted by all the delays and bickering.
Work on the Freedom Tower finally began this year. Now the question of how to display victims' names has also been resolved.
Which shows that progress in New York may be slow and painful - but at least it's possible.
 |
