A new controversy looms over yet another proposal to add a memorial to the National Mall–this one to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Legislation authorizing the terrorism memorial is nearing a vote in the House Resources Committee and was the subject of hearings this week.
The capital is still recovering from a brawling, months-long battle over the impending placement of a gigantic World War II Memorial on the Mall at the end of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Opponents argued that the World War II monument was an esthetically undesirable and environmentally dangerous intrusion on historic space, but they were defeated when Congress passed a law exempting the project from all present and future laws, regulatory actions and court reviews.
Though no specific design or site has been decided upon for the proposed Sept. 11 memorial, the pending authorization legislation stipulates that it be built “on or adjacent to” the National Mall.
“To remember and honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it is imperative that we build a national memorial so that all Americans will have a place to pay their respects to those who perished on that tragic day,” said Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas), chief sponsor of the project.
Opponents of further monument construction on and along the Mall, which runs from the Potomac River to the U.S. Capitol, fear that Congress may again bypass traditional safeguards and legal processes to permit construction.
“The Mall is being chopped up and is losing its power as an icon of democracy,” said Judy Scott Feldman, co-chair of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall. “What happened with the World War II Memorial could happen again.”
Feldman, whose group led the unsuccessful fight against the WWII monument, said the coalition has not yet taken an official position on the Sept. 11 proposal. But questions and objections have been raised, she said.
“There’s going to be a memorial to the Sept. 11 attack victims at the Pentagon,” she said. “There’s going to be another one at the site of the World Trade Center, and one has been proposed in Pennsylvania [where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed]. The Congress should carefully consider what’s happened to the Mall already and whether this memorial is really needed.”
Turner’s proposal has the backing of House Resources Committee Chairman James Hansen (R-Utah).
In testimony Tuesday, Daniel Smith, special assistant to the director of the National Park Service, warned that rushing a Sept. 11 memorial through would violate federal law.
In 1986, fearing that the Mall was in danger of becoming cluttered with monuments advocated by special interest groups, Congress and the Reagan administration established the Commemorative Works Act, which forbids authorization of a monument to “an event, individual, or group before the 25th anniversary of the event or the death of the individual or the death of the last surviving member of the group.”
Smith noted that Congress has refused to exempt from this law proposed Mall-area memorials to victims of China’s Tiananmen Square massacre, the Persian Gulf war, the Challenger shuttle disaster and the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
He also questioned whether the design of such a memorial could be very focused.
“Although H.R. 2982 was introduced in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the only indication of the subject of the memorial is in the title, where it refers to `victims of terrorist attacks on the United States,'” Smith said. “The subject matter of this memorial could potentially include victims of every terrorist act throughout our nation’s history, which would be a very difficult memorial to design.”
