Dad: Keep son's name off memorial

BY KECIA BAL
The Tribune-Democrat

August 18, 2007 11:46 pm

— A father of one of the heroes of Flight 93 is demanding that his son’s name not be included in a national memorial planned for the crash site, pointing to what some have called Muslim symbolism in the design.
Tom Burnett Sr., who served on the jury that selected the design, said the memorial is an insult to the innocent people who were killed near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was against it from Day One,” Burnett said.
Thomas Burnett Jr., 38, was killed along with 39 other passengers and crew when the hijacked plane plunged into the reclaimed strip mine.
This week, Burnett Sr. announced his decision to request his son’s name be withheld through an outspoken critic of the design, Alec Rawls of Palo Alto, Calif.
Rawls has penned a book denouncing the design, originally called “Crescent of Embrace.”
“There is nothing that triggered it recently,” Burnett said. “I’ve thought about it for a long time.”
Rawls announced that Burnett will not allow his son’s name to be inscribed on one of the 44 glass blocks supposedly included in the design.
But even the idea that 44 glass blocks are to be part of the memorial is a point that those representing memorial efforts repeatedly have denied.
“That has been disproved so many times,” spokesman Bill Hayworth said in an earlier interview.
Burnett said he is unsure about the inclusion of 44 glass blocks – which Rawls has interpreted to include the four terrorists.
“I haven’t seen the design that includes 44 glass blocks,” he said.
But he said the overall design cannot honor the heroes of Flight 93.
“The crescent, the star, the wind-chime tower – it’s just riddled with (Muslim symbolism),” Burnett said, adding that he would like to see an objective investigation into the design.
“The how and the why, let’s find out,” he said, adding that he is unsure whether he can actually stop the National Park Service from using his son’s name in the memorial.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I will tell you this: I will find out. Maybe it will be the finger snap that wakes some people up.”
Memorial planners have said the design, selected two years ago, will move ahead as planned and that Rawl’s claims are unfounded.
Joanne Hanley, superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial, said, Rawls “bases all of his conclusions on faulty assumptions.”