U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo’s criticism of crescent-shaped 9/11 memorial
Re: “Design for 9/11 site to change; Tancredo’s push sees a victory,” Sept. 15 news story.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo has entered a very scary place. Following a Tancredo-generated false controversy, the Park Service superintendent for the monument to the heroes of Flight 93 is willing to change the memorial’s name. Upon learning this, the Colorado representative said: “This is a victory not for me but for the families of the victims.”
That piece of spin shows Tancredo’s total disconnect from taste and reality. Just that morning, the families of the victims were telling the media they wished Tancredo had called them before running to the press spotlight.
Three days before, on Sept. 11, the families were celebrating the end result of their year-long memorial selection process. Joining them were former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who called the memorial is “simple and elegant,” and retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who is raising funds for the memorial.
A week before, on Sept. 7, the victims’ families “cheered and gave a standing ovation to the design.”
Tancredo’s issue is the syntax, a word, of the memorial. It is called the “crescent of embrace.” The term refers to an arc of maple trees that represents a circle that is broken by the path of Flight 93 as it crashed into a Pennsylvania field. The crescent is a shape commonly associated with the Muslim faith.
In Tancredo’s mind, crescent equals Islam equals terrorism. Sharing his view are bloggers RealClearPolitics, Little Green Footballs, Hillbilly Geek and zombietime.com. I am unclear as to why Tancredo values their opinions over the families of Flight 93. But I am clear on why Tancredo preferred the publicity of a press release over a quiet phone call to the memorial’s selection committee: attention.
Corey P. Saylor, Washington, D.C.
The writer is government affairs director for the Council on American- Islamic Relations.
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Re: “Tancredo’s remarks a new low,” Sept. 14 Jim Spencer column.
Jim Spencer, not Tom Tancredo, hit a new low when he called Tancredo a “race-baiting congressman.” Tancredo is anything but. Spencer should apologize.
What Spencer harps on is the congressman’s sensible request that the design of the memorial for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, flight that crashed in Pennsylvania not be shaped like a crescent, a symbol of Islam. Many people have questioned the use of the crescent, since it indeed is, according to New York University Middle East Studies professor Bernard Haykel, “the symbol of ritual and religious life for Muslims.”
Do we Americans want the memorial to honor Islamic terrorists or the Americans who died in a noble effort to possibly protect the White House from destruction? Tancredo’s letter to the National Park Service reflects his concern for the best interests of America. Spencer’s column is essentially nothing but an irrational and totally unfair attack on Tancredo.
Charles L. King, Boulder
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Thank goodness Rep. Tom Tancredo stepped in to modify a memorial in another state. But that is just a start. Has he seen the South Carolina State flag? It has a crescent moon and a palm tree. Look it up for yourself and you’ll see it has that “Middle East look.” Tancredo should use his patriotic fervor and force them to change their flag.
At what point will apologists for a man whose name is linked to our whole state say, “Enough, already”?
Drew and Judy Edmondson, Denver
