The 9/11 Memorial Wall: Little Identification of those who died on 9/11 Memorial Wall

Dennis Smith has written a piece for the New York Daily News about problems with the planned 9/11 Memorial Wall to honor those who died. Smith says the wall has had "feint praise or no praise at all from 9/11 families.

The problem: the names of those who died will be placed randomly on the walls that rim the eight sides of the memorial." The only exception is that the names of first responders will be attached to their units, but with no rank.

But there will be no rank or age given for any individual. Smith gives examples of his concern:

Lt. Gen. Timothy J Maude, 53, began his career life as a postal worker, joined the Army as a private, went to Officer Candidate School to get his gold bar and then was sent to Vietnam, where he earned a Bronze Star. He was a respected three-star general, one of the youngest ever, and Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, when he was murdered at the Pentagon.

He will be listed without uniqueness as Timothy J. Maude....

Therre were eight children between the ages of 2 and 11 on the crashed airplanes of 9/11. But their names will be listed without their ages on the 9/1 memorial. We will never know, future generations will never know, that they were boys and girls.

We will never mourn the special horror of their deaths.

Mr. Smith mentions Moira Smith, 39, a wife, mother and respected law enforcement officer, who in her short life had already saved dozens of lives after a subway crash. On 9/11/01:

She was photographed on 9/11 helping an injured man out of the south tower, calling for assistance, only to return into the building to help others. Moira Smith would have received a medal for saving that man, and the fact that she decided, in complete safety, to go back into the building to bring more people out, is as courageous as any act since Christ carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem.

She died in the collapse as a police officer, but on the memorial walls she will be listed simply as Moira Smith. There will be a symbol indicating her connection to the NYPD. But to look at her name at the memorial you will not know if she was a sergeant from a police boat squad of the NYPD, or from an administration pool at Police Headquarters. And you will have no idea that she was still in the first half of her expected life, the second half having been ruthlessly stolen from her.

Dennis Smith's is not the only opinion of things gone wrong with the Memorial. In June 2006, the names of the murdered being placed randomly on the wall was already and issue: From The New York Times:

Most relatives of those killed on 9/11 will not endorse the World Trade Center memorial plan, even in its revised form, until officials give up their insistence that the names of the dead be randomly arrayed, advocates for the families said in recent interviews.

In 2006, here is what the families wanted:

They want the 2,979 names arranged by the towers in which the victims worked and died, by affiliation (their employers, typically), and by floor, with their ages next to their names, said Edith Lutnick, the executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.

Then Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted the names randomly placed, and the architect agreed, saying it signifies the "haphazard brutality of the attacks." But today, when I think about the attacks, I know there was nothing haphazard about that day. If I'm visiting New York City, and go to the Memorial Wall, I would hope to find names with at least some organization...alphabetical, at least and certainly with ages given. I agree with the families. The names should be by Tower number, and by employer. That has meaning. Random listings - how would you find your loved one, among the 3,000 names?

Both of the articles linked above are interesting - something, I living out here in the southern heartland, knew nothing about. I've followed the Flight 93 Memorial and that sad story, but knew nothing about the New York City memorial. View an online list of names, ages and employers here.