Ten of 13 memorial jurors attended public hearing

New York City firefighters and relatives of their comrades who died on September 11, 2001, dominated a hearing Wednesday night at which members of the public discussed their wishes for the permanent memorial to be built at Ground Zero.

Speakers repeatedly asked that the more than 400 rescue workers who perished -- including firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians -- be identified as such to distinguish them from the majority of victims of the terrorist attacks. It is vital, they said, that the memorial recognizes the heroism of those who voluntarily chose to go into the Twin Towers in the hope of saving others.

"Failure to do so is to not recognize their actions and the sacrifice they made," said Tom Cleary, a firefighter. Otherwise, he added, the memorial "sends a message to future generations that there was nothing but victims that day."

Firefighters were visible in full gear

Kevin Rampe, LMDC's interim president, set out the key questions as he welcomed the audience: "What important considerations or concerns would you like to convey to jury members before they evaluate submissions? What do you want the memorial to mean to future generations?"

Some attendees responded with conceptual notions. One speaker asked for a memorial that is "incapable of receding into the fabric of the city over time." Another sought "something that reaches to the sky or gives a sense of the grandeur of the buildings that were there." Speakers used adjectives like "iconic," "beautiful," and "transcendent" in describing what they were looking for.

Also speaking were a number of Lower Manhattan residents who exhorted the jury to pick a design that would knit their neighborhoods together rather than separate them with the sub-ground-level area that master planner Daniel Libeskind has designated as the memorial site.

A sizeable crowd turned out for public hearing

"It should be known for the historical record [that] these men willingly gave their lives to help other people," said Chris Ganci, the son of a FDNY department chief. "If it wasn't for them, you'd need twice as much space for a memorial, because there'd be twice as many victims."

Geraldine Halderman, the mother of a firefighter who was killed, said that listing firefighters with their companies was the right thing to do. "All lives lost on September 11 were equally precious and priceless," she said. "This in no way detracts from or places less value on the lives of civilians."

When it voted to adopt a mission statement and program in April, LMDC officials said that the memorial would not establish what board member Thomas Johnson called "a hierarchy of loss," which Rampe echoed in his remarks Wednesday evening.

Jurors will choose from among thousands of design submissions

There is no language in the mission statement or memorial program that precludes the recognition recommended by many speakers Wednesday evening. One LMDC official told LowerManhattan.info that the issue may resolve itself when designs are chosen.

The comments of some advocates suggest that they are envisioning a wall of names similar to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. But as Rampe noted, "There is no specific form of recognition required, such as a listing of names, because the memorial has not yet been conceived. Instead, we must allow the artists, designers, and… jurors to explore and evaluate the countless possibilities of how best to accomplish individual recognition."

Each juror spoke briefly at the outset, with several promising to listen with an open mind and noting the gravity of the task. Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., said she would do her best to "find a design that speaks to all of us."