A Step in the Right Direction

Finally, after months of persistance and fortitude of one woman and those who followed her, the The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex run by the International Freedom Center is dead. Thanks to Debra Burlingame (whose brother was one of the pilots murdered in the 9/11 attacks), the Take Back the Memorial website, the New York Post and many others who would not let this George Soros-funded anti-American museum infest the sacred ground of the World Trade Center. Shame on King George Pataki, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Chuck Schumer and Eliot Spitzer for letting this fester on this long.

The International Freedom Center was a wolf in sheep's clothing whose real intention was to show that it was partly America's fault that 19 mentally-deranged, sexually-repressed, Islamofascists flew two airliners into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. It's stated goal was to take us (ignorant) Americans on "a journey through the history of freedom." While this sounds like it should be a museum dedicated to the brave Americans during the Revolutionary War, it was far from it. It was more about freedom's failures and the cost of freedom on others. Their message to memorialize 2,974 murder victims: "it is not only history's triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond," according to whistle-blower, Debra Burlingame.

The leaders of the International Freedom (I mean, Hate America) Center are among some of the most despicable people in America today. The leader is Tom Bernstein, the President of the Human Rights First Center (another fuzzy, warm name for evil institution). These freedom lovers sued Donald Rumsfeld personally on behalf of the terrorists captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. A true patriot!

Other wolves exposed by Debra Burlingame are:

• Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the worldwide "Stop Torture Now" campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld's refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is "irresponsible and dishonorable."

• Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11.

• Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus." The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner's statement warning that future discussions should not be "overwhelmed" by the IFC's location at the World Trade Center site itself.

• George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib "hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself."

How these people got this far involved in the WTC Memorial in the first place baffles the mind. How they stayed this long in the ballgame is another matter. Since September 12, 2001, no one has displayed more ineptitude in rebuilding the World Trade Center than King George Pataki. After 4 years to the date, I still walk past the hole in the ground going to work. 4 years and all we have to show for it is a hole in the ground surrounded by gawking tourists taking pictures. One man has more control over this site than anyone and that one man has been an abject failure since day one. Pataki, against the majority of New Yorkers, jammed this monstronsity called the Freedom Tower down our throats and brought the International Freedom Center to the table and sat there and did nothing until well after they exposed themselves at dinner and had worn out their welcome well before dessert.

I could go on for hours about this, but I am afraid I will lose the 5 readers I have. Let's just say that when Pataki finally caved in to the public pressure and ended this travesty, it was a step in the right direction.

It a shame that it took 48,000 petitioners from Take Back The Memorial, the majority of the 9/11 murder victims' families, Police and Firefighters Unions, countless editorials by the New York Post, congressmen Vito Fosella and John Sweeney threatening congressional hearings to bring this to the forefront before Hillary Clinton and Rudy Guiliani finally weighed in and put too much pressure on King George to keep up this charade.

But the one person who deserves more credit than anyone is Debra Burlingame. She exposed this rat's nest from the very beginning and never once let up exterminating it. It's people like Debra Burlingame who make this country the greatest in the world and, at the same time, restore a little faith for people like me.