Compromise on 9/11 Remembrance

I was very pleased to hear that the City of New York reached a compromise yesterday with the families of the 9/11 victims to allow them to go to bedrock to remember their lost loved ones during the ceremonies on the sixth anniversary next month.

There was a 30-minute meeting at City Hall between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the victims' families. The mayor had reversed his position that it was too dangerous for the families to go down to bedrock this year because of all the construction going on at the World Trade Center site. The families said the meeting was very congenial.

The families showed the mayor a photograph from the NY Daily News earlier this week (the one above) that it was still possible for the kin of the victims to go down to bedrock one final time this September 11. The mayor agreed (and I'm sure he also viewed that public sentiment was with the families), so there will be no lawsuits, and we will be able to go down to bedrock for this last time.

The ceremonies will still be held in Zuccotti Park, across from the site on Liberty Street. The families will be able to go down into the site single-file to lay flowers, and spent a few moments in the site before returning up the ramp. It will be an extremely emotional time, since it will be the final time we'll be allowed there. (I've been asked many times what it's like to walk on that hallowed ground at bedrock. I always say that unless you've done it, you can't possibly know.)

I'm really pleased to know that we will all have one final time to remember those people we knew and loved who were lost on September 11, 2001 right on the site. I'm glad the city is allowing it to happen. All the 9/11 families, especially those who have no place to grieve, deserve this.