Alliance to Respect Human Remains at the 911 Memorial

Dear Family Member,

The intent of this letter is to inform 9/11 families of serious issues regarding the ethical and respectful treatment of our loved ones' human remains at the future 9/11 Memorial Museum.

We are an alliance of established group leaders who have lost their loved ones at the WTC. For the past eight and a half years, we have been advocating for 9/11 family members as they struggle to ensure a proper, honorable and respectful 9/11 Memorial and Museum as a legacy for their loved ones.

As the 9/11 Memorial Museum is being constructed, alarming details are just beginning to emerge about specific design elements of the facility. Some time ago, several 9/11 family group leaders attended a lecture by Alice Greenwald, Director of the Memorial Museum. Among other elements of concern, we were appalled to learn that the unidentified human remains will be inside the museum itself - seven stories below ground - and will be a "programmatic element" among the other museum artifacts and displays!

The sad truth is that the majority of families have been excluded from this entire process - you have not had any input or decision-making power in any aspect of this memorial process. You have not been consulted on the disposition of human remains. Now is the time to make your voice heard.

In the first few years after 9/11, many families advocated that the unidentified human remains be returned to Ground Zero, to be interred in a type of "tomb of the unknowns." At that time, the families fully believed that this tomb, and indeed the entire memorial complex itself, would be above ground where it belonged. We all believed that the human remains would be interred in a respectful and accessible location at Ground Zero. We never thought our loved ones' remains would be made part of a museum and we surely never agreed to such an arrangement!

Now we are told that the sacred remains of our loved ones will be placed at the bottom of the museum (70 feet below ground), behind a "memorial wall" which will be pointed out to all tourists and visitors at the Museum as containing the remains of our loved ones! This was a shocking revelation: We did not realize these plans would relocate the human remains to such an extremely inaccessible and impersonal location.

We and our expert advisors recently met with representatives of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and once again expressed our opposition to placing our loved ones' human remains at the bottom of a museum without proper consultation with all of the 9/11 families. We would like to be able to bring your collective desires to them as well as insist that you and all other family members be consulted on this critically important and most sacred issue regarding the interment of 9/11 human remains at GZ

Fundamentally, the choice about the final disposition of our loved ones' human remains at Ground Zero must be solely in the hands of the family members. It is through proper, ethical consultation with all family members that this decision must be made. We need to have a voice, and we need to have a choice, regarding where the placement of the human remains should be at the WTC site.

We have established a web site to inform the families and to record their opinions & choices regarding the placement of our loved ones' human remains 70 feet below ground in the lowest level of the 9/11 Museum. Please VISIT the web site and VOTE at: www.RespectHumanRemainsatthe911Memorial.com

Please select one of the three specified options OR tell us about your own proposal in the space provided. We also wish to hear any specific comments that you have about this situation. Please email us at: administrator@respecthumanremainsatthe911memorial.com with your comments.

*Please share this email with other 9/11 families.

Sincerely,

Deputy Chief Al Santora, FDNY ret. & Maureen Santora
9/11 Tribute Center Docents
9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims,
Parents of FF Christopher Santora, E-54, WTC/9/11

Deputy Chief Jim Riches, FDNY ret. & Rita Riches
Chairman, 9/11 Parents and Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims
Father of FF James Riches, E-4, WTC/9/11
 
Jim McCaffrey, LT/FDNY
Co-chair, Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial
Brother-in-law of B.C. Orio J. Palmer, Batt 7, WTC/9/11
 
Rosaleen Tallon, Ed.D
Family Liaison, Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial
Sister of FF Sean Patrick Tallon, L-10/E-10, WTC/9/11
 
Rosemary Cain
9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims
Freeport 9/11 Parents Support Group
Mother of FF George C. Cain, L-7, WTC/9/11

Russell & Joyce Mercer & Christine Kopytko
The Skyscraper Safety Campaign
9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims
Family of FF Scott M. Kopytko, E4/L15 , WTC/9/11
 
Sgt. Al Regenhard, NYPD ret.
Sally Regenhard
The Skyscraper Safety Campaign
Parents of FF Christian M.O. Regenhard, L-131, WTC/9/11

To contact the above members of The Alliance to Respect Human Remains at the 911 Memorial email: administrator@respecthumanremainsatthe911memorial.com