[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 59 (Tuesday, April 15, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E611-E612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         QUESTIONS ABOUT DESIGN OF PROPOSED FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM RAMSTAD

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 15, 2008

  Mr. RAMSTAD. Madam Speaker, Tom Burnett, Jr. was a true American 
hero. All Americans owe Tom and the other passengers on United Flight 
93 a deep debt of gratitude for their bravery on September 11, 2001. 
Indeed, the Members of this body may owe their very lives to Tom 
Burnett, Jr. and the other courageous passengers. Tom Burnett, Jr. grew 
up in Bloomington, Minnesota, in the 3rd Congressional District, which 
I am privileged to represent.
  Tom was among the small group of passengers who confronted the 
hijackers that fateful morning. Department of Defense officials believe 
Flight 93 was headed for a target here in Washington, most likely the 
White House or the Capitol.
  Tom's father, Tom Burnett, Sr., has long-held and serious concerns 
about the design of the Flight 93 Memorial Project proposed for the 
site where the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to insert comments from Tom Burnett, Sr., 
regarding what he believes to be serious problems with the design of 
the memorial to his beloved son and the other passengers. Here are Tom 
Burnett, Sr.'s important concerns about the Flight 93 Memorial:

       ``I am the father of Tom Burnett, Jr., a passenger on 
     Flight 93 on 9-11-2001. Tom Jr. led the effort to take that 
     flight back from the hijackers, and he and 39 passengers and 
     crew almost succeeded.
       ``My son confronted a terrible moment of truth. Faced with 
     a plot against our nation, he and the other heroes of Flight 
     93 fought back, and at the cost of their lives, foiled that 
     plot to destroy the White House or the Capitol. Now it is 
     time for the rest of us to face our moment of truth. Flight 
     93 has been rehijacked, and I am requesting that, if you can, 
     demand that a proper investigation of the Memorial Project be 
     conducted.
       ``This was no accident. The Memorial Project held an open 
     design competition in time of war, inviting the entire world 
     to enter. Guess who joined in? That group of trees that sits 
     roughly in the position of the star on an Islamic flag is the 
     crash site. What do you think is being memorialized here?
       ``A second Islamic feature that I also protested when I 
     served on the Stage II jury is the minaret-like Tower of 
     Voices, formed in the shape of a crescent, with its top cut 
     at an angle so that its crescent arms reach up into the sky. 
     Upturned crescents are a standard mosque adornment in many 
     Muslim countries.
       ``Every iota of this original Crescent of Embrace design 
     remains completely intact in the so-called `redesign.' That 
     is why Congressman Tancredo asked the Park Service to scrap 
     the existing design entirely. Instead of getting rid of the 
     giant crescent as Tancredo demanded back in 2005, architect 
     Paul Murdoch only disguised it with a few surrounding trees.
       ``Also remaining are those 44 glass blocks on the flight 
     path. (There were 40 passengers and crew and four Islamic 
     terrorists on Flight 93.) The Memorial Project acknowledges 
     the 40 blocks inscribed with the names of my son and the 
     other heroes, and they acknowledge the three inscribed with 
     the 9/11 date, but they pretend not to know about this one: 
     the huge glass block that dedicates the entire site.
       ``When this 44th glass block is pointed out, Project 
     Partners say that it can't be counted with the other blocks 
     because it is not the same size. What? Because the capstone 
     to the terrorist memorializing block count is magnificent, 
     that is supposed to make it okay?
       ``For every Islamic or terrorist memorializing feature of 
     the crescent design, the Park Service has another equally 
     phony excuse.
       ``What do we have to do to convince those opponents that 
     the proposed Flight 93 Red Crescent still doesn't cut it? It 
     is terribly flawed and should be thrown out to begin the 
     quest for an entirely new design worthy of their efforts, 
     those heroic Americans who were on that plane that fateful 
     day.
       ``I was on the second jury in August, 2005, that approved 
     that design over my objections. I objected then, in August 
     2005, and I am still adamantly opposed today to a design that 
     is riddled with Islamic symbols.
       ``By consensus, the Stage II jury forwards this selection 
     to the partner (architect Paul Murdoch) with the full and 
     unqualified support of each juror, says the report that was 
     issued.
       ``No, to the contrary, the vote was not unanimous, it was 9 
     to 6, and we, the minority, had no veto power. This is my 
     effort to get back in the game.
       ``I don't want that design that has been redesigned several 
     times by its originator and a design committee. In addition 
     to the Red Crescent being a giant mosque, the proposed `Tower 
     of Voices' looks like an Islamic minaret.
       ``Millions of Americans and I find the `Red Crescent of 
     Embrace' an insult to my son and the others on Flight 93 who 
     engaged in a violent struggle to take that plane back from 
     the Islamic hijackers and were suddenly placed in the 
     vanguard of the war on terrorism. Facing unfathomable 
     choices, Tom was calm, clear headed, decisive and fearless. I 
     can only hope that in the years to come the rest of us live 
     up to the standard of heroism that he and others set on 9/11.
       ``What I am preeminently concerned about is what our 
     countrymen will feel and learn when they visit the site.
       ``The story, when properly presented, will honor and 
     reverberate in history. What those heroes accomplished for 
     their fellow Americans, and for the entire Western World.
       ``I would want them to feel the desperateness of those 
     aboard Flight 93 as they became aware of what was happening, 
     and their cold realization of what they had to do. I want 
     them to ask themselves, what would I have done had I been 
     aboard that flight? We know that in very little time the 
     passengers got out of their seats, and attempted to take back 
     the airplane.
       ``I do not want my son's name used anywhere on that 
     Memorial, which is an insult to him and the other passengers 
     and crew, and what is needed is a thorough, honest and 
     objective investigation of the process during its selection, 
     how and why.
       ``I am confused but undaunted by the attacks on me and 
     anybody else who is against this design centered around 
     Islamic symbolism.
       ``Those who have opposed me in many efforts to be heard 
     includes some of the victims family members (thankfully, 
     few), officials in the National Park Service, a few 
     newspapers and some others.

[[Page E612]]

       ``The possibility of them prevailing to railroad the 
     acceptance of this flawed design worries me! But I am 
     undaunted in my attempt to start over, to scrap it, and get a 
     new design. That doesn't include a bow to the Islamic 
     fanatics.
       ``An investigation is needed to avoid a cataclysmic 
     mistake. It must be now, or else the flawed design could come 
     about. Let us get at the truth. Their stubborn persistence is 
     terribly misguided. Maybe well intentioned, but flawed in 
     telling me that I don't see what I see.
       ``Designer Paul Murdoch (and others) are engaging in 
     personal attacks on anyone opposed, including Alec Rawls who 
     has written widely damning the Memorial. His latest, a book, 
     ``Crescent of Betrayal,'' gives a reasoned and thorough 
     explanation for scrapping it.
       ``I am suggesting that it is past time to start over with a 
     new design, one that will truly be worthy of those 40 
     heroes.''

  Madam Speaker, may God bless Tom Burnett and his family. And may God 
bless America and all the heroes like Tom who gave their lives to save 
others on September 11.

                          ____________________