In a May 10, 2011 photo, Joseph Manny passes his hand over a phrase etched into steel on a Sept. 11 memorial in Phoenix. The monument was created by etching 54 phrases in a circular piece of steel that captured what happened on Sept. 11 in New York and Phoenix, some stating facts and some stating opinions. It’s those opinions on the memorial that have touched off a struggle in Arizona over how Sept. 11 should be remembered. (AP Photo/Tamara Lush)TAMARA LUSH,Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) – Matthew Salenger etched 54 phrases in a circular piece of steel, building Arizona’s Sept. 11 memorial one story at a time. He wanted everyone’s story to be told.
Phrases like “10:28 a.m. WTC North Tower Collapses” stated undisputed facts. Then there was “Must Bomb Back” and its polar opposite: “You Don’t Win Battles of Terrorism With More Battles.” Gary Bird, a businessman and Arizona’s sole victim of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, was listed. So was a Sikh who was killed in a hate crime outside Phoenix, four days later.
Salenger thought that all of those thoughts could coexist peacefully on a public memorial. He was wrong.
“I think we overestimated how much respect people would have for each other and their views,” says Salenger, who was one of the monument’s three designers. “People didn’t want to see something they don’t agree with in public.”