It was a slow and emotional processional on Saturday as the remains of over 1100 unidentified 9/11 ground zero victims were moved to an underground repository at the National September 11 Memorial Museum, according to L A Times . The victims of ground zero will be buried seventy feet below ground at the basement of the museum.
Many of the family members of the ground zero victims are outraged at this decision, in which they had no say whatsoever. CSMonitor.com reports the families say the remains should be “stored in an above-ground monument separate from the museum.”
Numerous family members of the Ground Zero victims protested during the procession on Saturday, wearing black scarves covering their mouths to represent that their voices were not heard. CSMonitor.com shared Sally Regenhard’s disgust as she mourns the loss of her firefighter son, Christian, at ground zero.
“It’s horrible. I am so angry. I am so angry. I am outraged. The human remains of my son and all of the 3,000 victims should be in a beautiful and respectful memorial, not in the basement of a museum,” she said.
NY Post reported another slam made by ground zero victim’s mother, Rose Foti, whose lost her son, firefighter Joseph Foti.
“They have no right to do this. They never asked for our permission. This is a slap in the face,” she fumed. “This is not a cemetery. It just tears you. They stick the knife in and they twist it.”
These moms, and many other family members of the Ground Zero victims simply want to have a say in how their loved ones are put to rest. They want all the unidentified ground zero victims to be shown respect and have a beautiful memorial where they can be remembered.
Of the 2,753 Ground Zero victims, 41 percent of them have not yet been identified, per CSMonitor.com . Those families still continue to hope that their loved one will be identified. It is sad that after all this time there are still wounds that hurt deeply. And events such as this brings it all back to the surface. It is hard to hear, and even hard to relate to comments from the mother of firefighter Christopher Santora, who was only 23.
“I’m here to witness the City of New York putting unidentified human remains into a museum. It’s repulsive.”
Many of us will never know the amount of pain these families of the ground zero victims have felt, and continue to feel as they try to move forward with their lives. May God bless them all.
Photo Credit: Bing