9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims Statement on the Release of the Bill Doyle 9/11 Family Survey showing 95% of WTC Families
oppose placement of human remains in the 9/11 Museum
Many 9/11 families have advocated for the honorable and respectful internment of unidentified 9/11 human remains at GZ. - but NOT in a Museum! Nearly a decade ago, families were assured that these remains would be located in a "separate and distinct repository - separate from any Museum or Visitor Center " as family groups were promised by the LMDC in writing in 2003 via the " WTC Memorial Guidelines" written by the Family Advisory Council and agreed to by the LMDC. At that time, the small number of group leaders who met with the LMDC - could never have imagined that the honorable and respectful internment promised - would result in a shell game that plans to place 9,000 unidentified remains 70 ft (7 stories) below ground in a dangerous, distasteful and dishonorable manner.
9/11 family members were faced with the adamant refusal of Joe Daniels, President & CEO of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation (9/11MM), to survey WTC family members- asking them for permission to put their loved ones' remains in a museum. WTC families filed a lawsuit seeking to force the City of NY to release the names of the 2,749 family members whose loved ones died on 9/11 for the purpose of notifying and seeking the input of the families regarding the City’s and the 9/11MM’s plan.
Faced with the refusal of the 9/11MM to do its job, 9/11 parent and Family Group leader Bill Doyle recently conducted a comprehensive email survey of a significant number of WTC families on this issue. An astounding 95% of responding families categorically opposed the placement of human remains in the basement of the 9/11 Museum - which clearly indicates that there is no wholesale family approval of this plan - contrary to the false allegations of the 9/11MM.
The Bill Doyle survey is the only time that 9/11 families have ever been asked for their approval or disapproval of this unethical Museum plan. The high disapproval rate of 95% is illustrative of the fact that the 9/11 MM administration has never conducted a survey of all 9/11 families on this critically important issue. Thus, the false mantra of "family endorsement" has been put to rest.
One must ask: If allegations made by the 9/11MM that: "all the families agreed to this plan" are really true, then why are they fighting so adamantly against asking all the families for their input regarding placing the 9/11 human remains in a museum?
WHAT ARE WE ASKING TO BE DONE?
* We call for the City of NY, LMDC, and the 9/11 MM to take the human remains out of the private, admission-charging tourist attraction museum and place them in an above ground, separate and distinct repository akin to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is what families requested from the LMDC and City of NY in the early days post 9/11/01. If this will not be accomplished, we call for the remains to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, which is how the remains of Flight 77 and the Pentagon victims are entombed. Note that they have not been put in a Museum.
*We call for Congressional Hearings re: search, reclamation and disposition of human remains after a major national disaster or as a result of a member of the Military being killed in action.
*We call for federal protocols to be enacted to standardize and ensure proper handling of human remains for all large scale disasters regarding retrieval, reclamation and disposition of human remains of first responders, civilians or Military victims.
HUMAN REMAINS DO NOT BELONG IN LANDFILLS OR MUSEUMS!
Chief Jim Riches, FDNY (ret.) Father of FF Jimmy Riches, Jr. E4/WTC 9/11
Chairman, 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims
Museum director Alice Greenwald made $351,000, and capital planning Vice President Joan Gerner soaked up $337,143 before leaving last spring. Development director Cathy Blaney raked in $322,292. The full-time foundation employee also worked last year as a fund-raiser for Gov. Cuomo's election campaign.
The money to pay the $5.3 million in compensation for the foundation's 87 staffers in 2009 came from private donations -- $220 million raised in a Herculean grass-roots effort to honor the 2,974 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Atlas readers, please start working the phones and your email lists. We must help the 911 families rescue their loved ones' remains from becoming a circus sideshow:
Email to Joe Daniels, President, 9/11 Memorial Museum:
Telephone: 212.312.8800
info@national911memorial.org
Email Mayor Bloomberg, Chairman, 9/11 Memorial Museum
mbloomberg@cityhall.nyc.gov
