N.Y. Times Comes Out Against Pataki

The fight for the 9-11 Memorial is not over. Those that want to create an exhibit that shows all the blemishes of America's past are on the offensive.

Gov. George Pataki's decision to side with increasingly vocal critics of the cultural plans for the World Trade Center site is not surprising, but it is alarming. The governor has been deeply and rightly sensitive to the concerns of the families of the victims of 9/11. Like all of us, he honors their loss and their grief. But by bowing to some of the survivors' growing hostility to any version of 9/11 except their own, Mr. Pataki is doing a disservice to history and to the very idea of freedom.

The protesters have objected to the proposed International Freedom Center, which they fear might someday sponsor discussions that cast America in a negative light, and to the Drawing Center, one of the cultural institutions invited to move to ground zero, which has displayed art that appears to criticize the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.

The protesters - and the governor - seem to have little faith in the emotional power of the memorial to the victims, which will be the central focus of ground zero, emotionally, politically and architecturally. The memorial's force will not be diminished by any other activities at the site, and it will inevitably serve as a locus of grief and remembrance for everyone who was touched by 9/11. But it is meant to remember something more than a day of tragedy. It's meant to remember the lives of those who died there, lives that were rich, complex and politically and culturally divided.

I reiterate: Freedom of speech allows haters of America to voice their opinion. However the 9-11 Memorial is not the proper venue. The purpose of a memorial is to remember the dead and the occasion on which they died. The offensive display of the proposed Freedom Center is not a memorial to the dead from that occasion. Put the Freedom Center somewhere else.