Remains Of 9/11 Victims 'To Spend Eternity' In City Rubbish Dump

[Bob Hubbard]

Remains Of 9/11 Victims 'To Spend Eternity' In City Rubbish Dump

Author: Charles Laurence Source: The Telegraph (UK)

Title: REMAINS OF 9/11 VICTIMS 'TO SPEND ETERNITY' IN CITY RUBBISH DUMP

The remains of hundreds of victims of the September 11 attacks are to be permanently buried in the world's largest rubbish dump, to the consternation of their grieving relatives.

In the aftermath of 9/11, more than half a million tons of dust and ashes from the Twin Towers were taken to the sprawling Fresh Kills landfill site on Staten Island.

More than 100 years' worth of refuse from New York City had accumulated at the dump before it was finally closed just six months before the attacks. The rubble from the World Trade Center ended up covering some 48 acres.

Relatives were assured that ashes would be returned after they were sorted, but city authorities have since balked at the estimated $450 million cost of transferring them again. Instead they have promised to lay a 2,200-acre park on top of the dump, whose rotting contents smell strongly of methane, and to erect a memorial to the victims.

Relatives of 1,169 of the 3,000 who died have yet to receive any remains, and many are outraged at the authorities' decision.
Original Thread: http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=11213

 

[Mark Weiser]

This speak of the mindset of our leaders. We are nothing but numbers if that to them. Each and everyone of us are expendable.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

450 million..... I believe 1 FN Abrams Tank costs about $560Million.

I think we can do without 1 fn tank.

 

[PeachMonkey]

450 million..... I believe 1 FN Abrams Tank costs about $560Million.

I think we can do without 1 fn tank.

Kaith, my good man, you're off by like a factor of ten. An M1A2 Abrams costs from 4.3 to 5 million dollars.

Not that I disagree with the notion of turning our swords into ploughshares, mind you. But if tanks cost that much, we'd have about 4 of them

 

[Bob Hubbard]

My mistake. I did some more digging.

$2.6 Million M1 Abrams Tank
http://www.3ad.net/abrams_tank.htm

$75 Million F-111 Fighter
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/f-111.htm

$2 BILLION B-2 Bomber
http://www.cnn.com/US/9903/26/stealth.bomber.critics/

Still, for a government thats dealing in the Trillions of $, the cost is nothing.

 

[rmcrobertson]

I agree--and while I also think that dead is dead, and that a fitting memorial might be to spend the 450 million on, say, food and shelter and clothing and education for New York's beat-up kids, it's important to remember that WHATEVER the George Bushes of the world say (and I see on another thread that our President can't even keep his Ground Zero stories straight) about the glories of capitalism, in the end it always comes down to the fact that money matters and people don't.

 

[kenpo tiger]

I feel for those families, even if the remains of the hijackers are interspersed with those of the innocent.

 

[Sapper6]

have you thought about just how hard it would to be to sort for ashes and human remains...?

"...money matters and people dont."

well how would you make that happen if you were in the oval office Robert? how would you determine which family gets what?

i guess what you could say is the government should dig ALL the trash containing human remains and relocate to a different spot and build the memorial there. but then again, all you'd be doing is memorializing a different landfill because it certainly wouldnt be a holy place with all the shards of glass, metal, paper and other garbage mixed in.

i dont know, i could be wrong of course. :idunno:

 

[rmcrobertson]

Yeah, you could.

What I specifically wrote was that mere pieces of meat don't count--human spirit counts, and that's what's being spit upon. Not by the mere unwillingness to spend 450 mil on the dead, but by the pious citation and political exploitation of the dead. As well as their recreation as commodities...

If this country meant what its Presdient mouthed about 9/11, NYC woulda skipped the political squabbling and right-wing maneuvering, the country woulda faced reality and stood up to supporting the dead from a new kinda war, and we woulda a) formally declared war, and b) hired the greatest artist of public commeoratives alive today, Maya Lin.

 

[kenpoangel]

Well I have to say,

Sitting here with my blinders on, it never crossed my mind that these families of the dead lost on 9/11 never received remains of their loved ones.

But as one that doesn't believe in burials and crying over something that is no longer my loved one, it shouldn't surprise me. Being one that wants to be cremated to avoid just this type of scene for my children, I would say personally I'm not sure just how that situation is best handled.

Thinking back on that fateful morning and remembering the picture of the buidlings falling and realizing the people left in them, I just don't see how it's humanly possible to sift through all that rubble and debris to further hammer in the point that you have lost your loved one in such a horrible way. Why would you want that...NEED THAT...for closure? Of course that is a rhetorical question as I know everyone has their own beliefs death and dying and what we need for closure.

I just know that when I saw the second building fall and watched the weeks of clean up and recovery, that would have been more than enough for me for closure. At the end of the day or the week after getting the final notification that my missing family member was indeed lost in the rubble, that would have been my closure. That would have been my end. At the very least, I would have made one final trip to ground zero and made my goodbyes with a few close friends and family members and that would have been that. I would prefer not to have someone sifting through ash and debris and rubble for the embodiment of something lost to me days before.

I can't say that would give me peace after the nights of wondering what it felt like being in the buildings that morning while I was safe in my bed oblivious to what was happening on what felt like the other side of the world once I was called and I turned on my television. I lost a friend from high school in one of those towers that morning and if he grew up to be half the man that he appeared to be as the boy I knew, he wouldn't want his wife or his children trying to regain pieces of something that is no longer Rob. Certainly not the heart and spirit of the man she knew and loved and had children with.

As hard as it is to go on after losing someone you love, particularly under these circumstances, time now is better spent trying to heal and move forward for the ones who lost their lives that morning.

Angela