Cross at Ground Zero

If one were to go to New York City and visit the Ground Zero memorial site they would see two beautiful memorial pools in place of where the towers used to be adorned with the names of loved ones lost. If you were to look further around the memorial you might run into a “statue” of sorts of a figure that seems to be a cross. In recent past months this cross has been causing quite the controversy especially from groups like the American Atheists and the Freedom From Religion Foundation who believe that any display of a religion in a public setting is in violation of the Constitution. This controversy ended up being brought into court and was ruled multiple times not to be in violation of the first amendment due to the fact that it is not stated that there has to be separation of public life and religion.

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Amongst all of the fighting it seems that people are forgetting what the real meaning of the cross-shaped beam. The beam was pulled from the rubbish of the actual site after the attack and stood as a sign of hope for many people, not a way to cram a religion down people’s throats. It represents history and stands as an actual artifact from the attack site and can be seen as an educational aspect as well. I believe that people need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture that the memorial in its entirety represents, honoring those who lost their lives on September 11^th 2001.

To read more about this seemingly controversial topic here.