NYC: 9/11 Tribute in Light Canceled Due To Covid Concerns
[guest post by Dana]
Tribute in Light, the world’s beloved twin beams of light, will not shine over lower Manhattan as part of this year’s 9/11 commemoration. This incredibly difficult decision was reached in consultation with our partners after concluding the health risks during the pandemic were far too great for the large crew required to produce the annual Tribute in Light. We hope to resume this iconic tribute for the 20th anniversary. In a spirit of unity and remembrance, the city will come together for a “Tribute in Lights” initiative to inspire the world and honor the promise to never forget.
After further inquiry, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum elaborated:
Due to impacts of COVID-19, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and Michael Ahern Production Services (MAPS) made the very difficult decision to not move forward with Tribute in Light this year. This year’s cancellation stems from health and safety concerns and underscores the far-reaching consequences of the global health crisis.
As the pandemic continues to surge throughout the country, it was necessary to consider the health and safety of the nearly 40 stagehands who work in close proximity to produce Tribute in Light. For multiple weeks in August and September, crew members work hours-long shifts at Battery Parking Garage to prepare for the production on the night of September 11. The facilities and the complex installation which requires stagehands to work closely together do not align with recommended COVID-19 health and safety precautions.
Unfortunately, the decision to cancel has resulted in a petition at Change.org, that calls on New Yorkers to congregate together in peaceful protest at Ground Zero with flashlights in hand:
There is No Reason to not have the lights as a tribute to those who lost their lives or Loved ones on that Horrible September Morning. The nonsense about Covid safety is just that NONSENSE! Why don’t we just consider it a peaceful protest against radical Islam!!! Bring your masks and Flashlights!!! This Year On September 11th Ground Zero will have lights with or without your Support!
After months of witnessing mass protests throughout the streets of NYC, and with bowling alleys, gyms, museums, and cultural institutions set to reopen next week, it seems odd that the preparation to assemble lights on a building is a bridge too far.
And where is Mayor DeBlasio on this? Has he urged organizers to continue with the tribute on behalf of the city and the victims of the attacks? Well, I can’t find a comment from him specifically addressing the issue, but this was his take this week on why enormous protests during the pandemic should be treated differently than other events or issues during a pandemic:
“The protests were an entirely different reality,” de Blasio said recently, claiming it is “apples and oranges” to say New York City is engaging in a double standard by giving anti-police activists free rein around the city while also imposing strict lockdown measures on businesses.
He added, “A national phenomenon that was not something that the government could just say, you know, go away, something that really came from the grassroots. And, obviously, it had profound meaning, and we’re all acting on the meaning of those protests.”
Even earlier than that, a reporter asked de Blasio whether there is “one set of rules for protesters and another for everyone else.”
You bet, said the mayor.
“When you see a nation, an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism,” de Blasio said, “I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or devout religious person who wants to go back to services.”
Priorities, people. No wonder people are fleeing the city in droves.
–Dana
Also, NYC schools are set to reopen with in-person classes in September…
Dana (292df6) — 8/14/2020 @ 12:18 pmDeBlasio has done a fantastic job undoing all of Giuliani’s accomplishments and turning NYC back into the cesspool of my childhood.
NJRob (433bc4) — 8/14/2020 @ 1:54 pmRemember the Maine?
Time relentlessly marches on.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/14/2020 @ 2:15 pmNYC is DOA
mg (8cbc69) — 8/14/2020 @ 2:20 pm2. I think it’s even worse, Rob. But then, I’m from flyover country. You couldn’t pay me enough to live in New York State, let alone NYC.
Gryph (f63000) — 8/14/2020 @ 2:24 pmHmmm, citizens gathering in protest to honor 9/11? Gee I wonder how much coverage the MSM gives them on that day? Thank goodness for private* live-streaming.
*Yes, even criminals, because they contribute to their own apprehension.
felipe (023cc9) — 8/14/2020 @ 2:24 pmyou’re getting this in spades if you vote for the solon, Wilhelm managed to do what bin laden could only dream, kill a great city,
bolivar de griz (7404b5) — 8/14/2020 @ 2:32 pm“NYC is DOA”
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NYC, Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle all doing their best to be worst-governed city in America.
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(((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio
@jasonrantz
Protesters, who got the Seattle Council to defund the police, are mad that the SPD didn’t bring social workers to a sweep of a homeless encampment. The Council voted this week to completely dismantle the SPD team that brings social workers to homeless sweeps
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A vote for Biden is a vote for NYC/Seattle for everyone.
harkin (5af287) — 8/14/2020 @ 3:39 pm_
4. NYC is DOA
Where ‘ya been for 45 years?
Front page/headline: FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD – NY Daily News 10/30/1975
A Republican, of course.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 8/14/2020 @ 4:02 pmOh but to so many people, and many on this site… it’s all Trumps’ fault……
Marci (405d43) — 8/14/2020 @ 4:47 pmThe Covid epidemic is Trump’s fault.
nk (1d9030) — 8/14/2020 @ 4:52 pmThe societal schism is Trump’s fault.
The lack of unifying national leadership is Trump’s fault.
Most worthless President ever.
And please, please, please spare us your hypocrisy about “NYC, Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle all doing their best to be worst-governed city in America”! You love it! You’re basking in it! It justifies your faith in your orange fetish.
nk (1d9030) — 8/14/2020 @ 4:55 pmyour faith in your orange fetish.
nk (1d9030) — 8/14/2020 @ 4:55 pm
Set to music.
felipe (023cc9) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:14 pmPoints, felipe, for the obscure but great reference.
Dana (292df6) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:21 pmFrom a Russian Orchestra no less.
urbanleftbehind (4ae5dd) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:23 pmYou love it! You’re basking in it!
Follow the logic. Then tell me who’s basking in DontCallItWuhanFlu deaths.
beer ‘n pretzels (316380) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:28 pmThanks, Dana. Here is a “young frenzied lover’s” version of the same piece. It really ends in a climax. Oh, those San Franciscans!
felipe (023cc9) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:35 pmFollow the logic. Then tell me who’s basking in DontCallItWuhanFlu deaths.
Only Trumpkins bask in the suffering of Americans. Rational people decry it. “Bask”, “decry”, two different words.
nk (1d9030) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:36 pm“ You love it! You’re basking in it!”
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Somehow in your fevered dreams you have confused me with William Ayers.
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Anyone who loves the the completely ginned-up racial strife, Antifa riots, exploding murder rates and wholesale looting hates this country.
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“Your faith in your orange fetish”
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Didn’t vote for him but I DO have faith that Biden/Harris will be worse.
harkin (5af287) — 8/14/2020 @ 5:57 pm_
Dana at 14:
That’s a pip.
Obscure literary reference, not sure how great.
harkin (5af287) — 8/14/2020 @ 6:05 pm_
Thats a fascinating selection felipe, like john williams borrowed themes from that.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 8/14/2020 @ 6:18 pmIt is stunning, but more and more, the optics of Leftist policy choices are giving serious new life to DJT. I doubt he will have the discipline to take full advantage, but it would be incredibly ironic if the Leftists lose because they can’t help themselves – which is the hallmark of DJT.
Ed from SFV (f64387) — 8/14/2020 @ 7:12 pmno arts, no restaurants, no theater, just crime on top of crime, coming to a suburb near you…
mg (8cbc69) — 8/14/2020 @ 7:59 pm“ It is stunning, but more and more, the optics of Leftist policy choices are giving serious new life to DJT. I doubt he will have the discipline to take full advantage…..”
Dood just can’t help stepping on his d**k on a regular basis. Example the Harris birther nonsense when that is probably the LEAST negative thing about her.
The Dems are trying to hand him the election on a platter by showing America what Democratic Control has done to our once-prosperous and livable urban centers but he goes out of his way to care about stuff that doesn’t matter at all.
harkin (813834) — 8/14/2020 @ 8:08 pm_
Democrats are traditionally for the common man, the little guy.
Eyefull (fd0e2c) — 8/14/2020 @ 8:11 pmHow can mayors in these major cities allow their constituents lives to be destroyed?
What has changed in the Democrat Party?
GIULIANI TO CITY: YOU CAN COME BACK FROM DEM INCOMPETENCE – 1994
A Republican, of course.
Not sure if Gotham can survive the Dem. dumpster fire this time.
harkin (813834) — 8/14/2020 @ 8:13 pm__
They must destroy the village in order to save it, you can run an arc from atlanta to augusta main and from seattle to la.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 8/14/2020 @ 8:13 pmThe dark knight rises as aspirational goal, sans fusion bomb that we know off.
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 8/14/2020 @ 8:15 pmfelipe, you inspired me to listen to my favorite Prokofiev again: the 2nd Violin Concerto. I used to play it — not well, mind you, but joyfully. Some passages are great tests of finger memory. Once you learn the notes, you have to let your left hand do its work without thinking about where your fingers are supposed to go.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/14/2020 @ 10:39 pmLeftist think dubya allowed 9-11 because he needed a second pearl harbor so people would forget the supreme court republicans giving him the presidency. It has a low priority with the left.
asset (f19ecc) — 8/14/2020 @ 11:42 pmRadegunda (e1ea47) — 8/14/2020 @ 10:39 pm
I just finished re-listening to it a few times, and I am just so charmed by the second movement. Thank you for reminding me of it.
felipe (023cc9) — 8/15/2020 @ 1:32 am@25. “How can mayors in these major cities allow their constituents lives to be destroyed?”
Those constituents are getting just what they’ve asked for, just what they deserve.
Matador (0284e8) — 8/15/2020 @ 5:07 amYeah, the quality of life is so much better in Hooterville and Bug Tussle.
nk (1d9030) — 8/15/2020 @ 6:59 amUntil Ernest T. Bass drops in, anyway.
nk (1d9030) — 8/15/2020 @ 7:04 amIs the orange mother-figure actually removing street-corner mailboxes, BTW?
nk (1d9030) — 8/15/2020 @ 7:09 amI’ll go find out for you, loath as I am to part with the few paper checks I bother to order and few stamps I buy
. I’m just happy if a local PO doesnt repeat Waukegan’s idiotic mistake of installing a drive-up slotted mailbox with the slot on the passenger side (on a 2 way street, they should be installed on a median, if a 1way or dedicated driveway is not available.)
That may explain a house i saw here on Sheridan Rd with a Republicans for Biden lawn sign.
urbanleftbehind (793c4c) — 8/15/2020 @ 8:17 amBriscoe Darling and the Darlings can drop in anytime to play a tune.
mg (8cbc69) — 8/15/2020 @ 8:18 amhttps://lostcoastoutpost.com/2020/aug/14/fact-check-us-post-office-removing-collection-boxe/
Whom to believe?
nk (1d9030) — 8/15/2020 @ 8:35 amDolly Parton doesnt have silicone seepage to blame for this, but I found a bluegrass Jolene replacement (my daughter directed me to it).
urbanleftbehind (793c4c) — 8/15/2020 @ 8:37 amNice. I’ve loved the Dobro forever, and it’s at its best played lap steel style. The girls sing okay too.
nk (1d9030) — 8/15/2020 @ 8:43 amThe article you linked answers the question, doesn’t it?
They got caught and are now “suspending” removal.
Dave (1bb933) — 8/15/2020 @ 9:15 amFelipe–
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/15/2020 @ 10:03 amThe second movement really is wonderful. It’s the heart of the piece.
While it sad that the Tribute in Lights ceremony has been cancelled this year, it should be noted that the decision was made by the event organizers, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and Michael Ahern Production Services (MAPS), not by the city or state governments. It could be argued that the event organizers came to their decision in accordance with directives established by these institutions– “The facilities and the complex installation which requires stagehands to work closely together do not align with recommended COVID-19 health and safety precautions”–but that appears to be a flimsy excuse.
If, as the organizers admit earlier in their statement, stagehands and production staff must work long hours (in close proximity) for several weeks over two months to prepare for the event, wouldn’t there be health and safety precautions and protocols in place during that time? And why couldn’t those measures be used for the actual event itself?
So, there must have been other considerations involved. I mean, all this concern over health and safety precautions for “nearly” forty stagehands? That’s a pretty small production crew for an event of this magnitude. How many stagehands and production staff does it take to organize something like a concert, a sporting event or a political rally? Hint, several hundred.
A conspiracy theorist could easily attribute some dark, evil political motivation behind the decision. “Covid-19 is killing so many Americans that we can’t pay tribute to the fallen of 9-11. And it’s all Trump’s fault! The event organizers are using the cancellation of Tribute in Lights to make the administration look bad. It’s a purely political decision made by the deep state, to harm the image of the President (Our Savior and Lord) right before the election. Fire them all!” I’m actually surprised something along those lines isn’t being spread throughout the Internet, Twitter and the Dark Web right now, or that Trump hasn’t made the ridiculous claim himself already.
More likely, the organizers feared the Tribute in Lights would become a super-spreader event. It would be bad optics and horribly ironic if a memorial of the fallen on 9-11, the worst terrorist attack in American history, caused a huge spike in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
I remember 9-11 vividly, as I am sure every American who old enough to remember at the time. I was teaching high school, woke up, made a pot of coffee, and turned on the morning news. And thre it was, hijacked planes flying into buildings, mass panic and fear, people dying. I can’t say I was shocked, although I was horrified. It only got worse as that horrific day unfolded, because in every classroom the television sets were turned on and couldn’t be turned off, so instruction had to be cancelled, as school children sat and watched terrified. All any teacher could do was desperately try to calm their fears and comfort their anxiety.
You know who was shocked, and I mean truly shocked, when I went to work that morning? The other teachers. They were all staring at me in disbelief. The reason why was because not even two weeks earlier we had all been involved in teacher conferences to prepare for the upcoming academic year. One of the topics under discussion was school procedure in the event of a mass shooting or terrorist attack. What should a teacher do to protect the safety of students? Each teacher expressed their concerns, but none of them took the eventuality very seriously, because they didn’t believed that anything like that could happen here. When it came my turn to speak, I said, “You know what scares the hell out of me? Planes hijacked by terrorists crashing into building across the country. What do we do then?” I told them about this newspaper article I had read five years earlier. They all laughed it off–nothing like that is ever going to happen. But they weren’t laughing when I went to work that morning. They were all staring at me with this blank, stunned look on their faces, like, dude, how did you know? How did I know?!
I remember reading that newspaper article more vividly than anything else. I was a graduate student in 1996, doing research at the library system at UT. I had picked up a copy of the Sustin-American Statesman and was reading through it before I started my research. It was a headline story on the front page that continued in sections on other pages, and at the centerfold was a dual-page, full color map illustrating hijacked planes crashing into building, historical and cultural sites, economic centers, and government facilities, at the same time on day in twenty cities across the United States. It was essentially the entire attack plan for 9-11 laid out in graphic detail.
That information had been taken off a laptop seized in a raid on a terrorist cell in Yemen buy US special forces in 1995. It was only now available for public release. I read that article and studied the centerfold map with concern, but at the time I naively thought, “Thank God the federal government and military knows about this. Surely they will prevent it from happening.” That article stuck with me for years, and I kept telling anyone who would listen about it, yet they all laughed me off.
To me, 9-11 was an unforgivable failure of the entire government at all levels. If a druatue student can read I graphic detail the entire attack plan in the newspaper, so could everyone else. George Bush was governor of Texas at the time. You cannot tell me he didn’t read the Austin-American Statesman. Bill Clinton was the President of the United States at the time. You cannot tell me that he wasn’t briefed on the attack plan long before it was printed in any newspaper, and it had to be printed in several. The same goes for every governor and state legislature, and the entire federal government, executive, legislative and judicial branches, plus every one of the top officials throughout the whole national security apparatus of the United States–the FBI, CIA, NSC, ATF, FAA, the list goes on and on, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They all had to know about it. Hell, I knew about it, and I was just a student reading a newspaper, for God’s sake!
The only difference between me and all of them was that I couldn’t do anything abut it, other than hope they would. And they didn’t, as inconceivable as that is. Seriously, think of all the officials and representatives that utterly failed in their sworn duty to protect the republic and the citizens. What, after the first bombing attempt on the World Trade Center, they couldn’t come to the realization that these terrorists were to be taken seriously and that all efforts should be made to prevent them from carrying out their evil plan?
That attack plan for 9-11 was in development for a decade or more. It was exposed in detail five years at least before the event. The entire government at all levels, every agency, knew about it, yet they allowed Arab immigrants on visas to take flight lessons without landing instructions?? That didn’t set off red flags and glowing neon warning signs? And then allowed them board planes. Talk about dereliction of duty and total neglect of responsibility.
So, yeah, I remember 9-11. It was a horrific, terrifying day. But I remember more reading about the whole damn thing five years before in the newspaper. The ultimate tragedy is that it all could have been prevented, if the government had taken the threat seriously and put in place strict restrictions to thwart it. Yet no official or agency did. That is inexcusable.
Anyone else notice that within hours after the first hijacked planes started crashing into buildings, the government shut down all airports and cancelled all flights? Well, yeah, they had a contingency plan in place for the eventuality, but had enacted no policies to prepare for it. If there ever was time for wide-spread protests in the streets, it was the day after 9-11. I couldn’t possibly have been the only one who read about the attack plan in the newspaper, millions did. And they all should have been incensed that horrific morning. The American people should have then demanded the resignation of every official and agency head for gross neglect, or rounded them all up and have them tried for dereliction of duty, if not treason.
Holding a Tribute in Lights memorial for the fallen is a fitting and beautiful ceremony to pay homage to the victims and brave first responders who lost their lives on that fateful day. But it is, to be regrettably honest, a somewhat weak response. It’s sort of like admitting defeat, saying all we have left is to mourn. While there hasn’t been a terrorist attack of that magnitude since, has the government really done anything at all constructive to defend us? Besides invade Afghanistan and declare war on Iraq, I mean. Failed endeavors both.
Many of the same elected officials and agency heads are still in place to deal with this coronova pandemic. And look at their ineptitude and incompetence in handling that. Over 170,000 prople are dead, with a thousand more dying every day, a person a minute. And we’re going to what about that, mourn? While the entire government is impotent in its response. “It is what it is,: are we supposed to just accept an excuse like that, lie down and die? I don’t think so.
In my mind, the anniversary of 9-11 should be a national day of protest against failed leadership. The anniversary of the outbreak of Covid-19 should be a national day of protest against incompetent government. This country went to hell in a handbasket a long time ago. Now it is upon us, the free citizens of the United States, to take back our rights and demand more from our elected leaders and agencies, get this ship of state back on course by any means necessary. Because if we don’t, we will have nobody to blame but ourselves when the whole sh!thouse goes down in flames.
Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 8/15/2020 @ 10:15 am#39 — Here’s Rhonda Vincent singing Jolene.
Radegunda (e1ea47) — 8/15/2020 @ 10:26 amThe 9/11 Tribute is back on:
No word from Mayor DeBlasio.
Dana (292df6) — 8/15/2020 @ 10:09 pmAwesome, remembering Ace means a lot to some of us.
mg (8cbc69) — 8/16/2020 @ 2:46 amwell we went to Afghanistan, because that’s where the operation was planned out of, they had a support system, revealed by the 28 pages, diplomats and other officials, one can reasonably surmise that the Saudi govt had used some of these future hijackers as muscle in places like bosnia, hence they were told to tread lightly, if memory serves, the planes project arose from an Egyptian army colonel, who is referred in my novella, as the recipient of info from one of antagonists, the initial test was an attempted hijacking of the concorde in 94 by Algerian rebels, around the same time was operation bojinka, which involved khalid sheikh mohammed who had been in bosnia, as well, along with zawahiris brother, for a Saudi relief outfit the iiro, the details of such were secured by torture, due to the zealousness of the phillipine authorities, yemen which also plays a large part in my story, was where the local potentate, deposed in 2011, had used the returning afghan fighters in a similar way to win his civil war against the south, then they were discarded in part,
bolivar de griz (7404b5) — 8/16/2020 @ 6:15 am