The War Street Journal recently published an op ed piece by one Debra Burlingame, in which the author claims that the Freedom Center planned for the re-built WTC — re-dubbed the “Freedom Tower” — has been “hijacked” by those gosh-darned America-hating left-wingers, who will fill the heads of schoolchildren and other visitors with their anti-American “propaganda.” A small taste is quite enough:
“The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is handing over millions of federal dollars and the keys to that building to some of the very same people who consider the post-9/11 provisions of the Patriot Act more dangerous than the terrorists that they were enacted to apprehend — people whose inflammatory claims of a deliberate torture policy at Guantanamo Bay are undermining this country’s efforts to foster freedom elsewhere in the world.”
As a libertarian, I don’t think anyone should be handing over millions of federal dollars for anything. Private citizens could buy the site, finance a memorial with voluntary contributions, and design it to their own specifications: otherwise, we are to be perpetually subjected to inquisitors of Ms. Burlingame’s ilk, such as the rightwing radio screamer Michael Smerconish who utilizes his posting privileges on the Huffington Post blog to support her attempt to “take back” the memorial.
If we must have a state-subsidized memorial — which seems pretty close to inevitable — then the War Party’s efforts to control what it looks like and what ideas it projects must be resisted — and that’s just what I do in my answering post on the Huff-blog, here.