Sunday: Sign A Freedom Tower Beam

From today's Post:

Quote:

December 16, 2006 -- Here's your chance to put your name in the new Freedom Tower.

One of the first massive 30-ton beams for the 1,776-foot tower will be displayed in Battery Park City tomorrow, and the public will be allowed to sign it.

Relatives of 9/11 victims and first responders will be able to see and sign the beam between 10 a.m. and noon at the intersection of North End Avenue and Murray Street. Everyone else will be allowed to sign the beam between noon and 3 p.m.

I went to this today, signed the beam and took some pics

http://www.cheesebus.com/coppermine/...706beam_01.jpg
The beam, on an elevated platform.

http://www.cheesebus.com/coppermine/...706beam_06.jpg

http://www.cheesebus.com/coppermine/...706beam_05.jpg

http://www.cheesebus.com/coppermine/...706beam_04.jpg
My forward thinking message, which will hopefully live longer than I do, along with my friend Laura's.

http://www.cheesebus.com/coppermine/...undzero_01.jpg
At some point it will be the first beam placed somewhere in here.

I had no idea what to expect, but I was a bit disheartened by the mood of the people there and the messages they were writing. Everyone was very solemn, almost like another memorial service. People were writing the same RIPs we've seen a million times before. Frankly, there have been plenty of public opportunities for the families to grieve, and there will be plenty more. Finally, the most positive event to occur in that area since the attacks — a tangible glimmer of recovery for the future of the area and our country and hopefully for some closure for the families — yet everyone was still dwelling on the horrors of the past. I'm not saying it should have been a party, but I think positive sentiments should be shared at positive events. The construction of the Freedom Tower will be a more powerful statement to the world than all the bombs we dropped on Afghanistan put together.

This may sound like I am minimizing the victims' families' suffering, which I can't even begin to imagine. But if I didn't feel their pain as an American, as a New Yorker, and therefore as someone are that I can possibly suffer a similar fate, I wouldn't have been there.

I really wish I was around to have signed it, but I was in DC. :(

Glad you got to make your mark, Matt. Just imagine....that's something that your grandkids will be able to say...that grandpa signed his name on the first beam int he Freedom Tower. Happy for you.