As the horror and a lingering disbelief over the events of Sept. 11, 2001 settled on the nation the day following the terrorist attack, a retired firefighter struggled through the wreckage at ground zero looking for survivors. The unimaginable devastation made it increasingly clear none would be found, and the pervasive gloom deepened with each hour.
Then the courageous volunteer stumbled on a scene forever etched in his mind. In a small clearing in the debris, a ray of sunlight penetrated the dust and struck an upright iron beam with a cross-bar: it was a sheared steel beam roughly shaped like a cross.
His photograph of the scene appeared in New York newspapers in the days to follow, and a solemn sense of reverence and even something a little like hope came to many who saw it. That extraordinary symbol of hope, now part of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, has suddenly become a center of controversy thanks to a lawsuit filed by American Atheists that seeks to unearth the cross.
The group has what can only be described as a seething hatred of memorial crosses -- even from just a quick read of its legal complaint, which says the 9/11 terrorist attack was carried out by "religious fanatics in a faith-based initiative," a gratuitous cheap shot against thousands of faith-based organizations (another target of their wrath) that minister to the needy.
This lawsuit and others like it come from a radical fringe whose claimed legal "harm" is simply that they are offended. Though nearly everyone in our society can find something that offends them, these groups go to court to say their offense should trump our shared cultural and historical values.
Source: spectator.org
9/11 iron-beam cross
