How They Erased the Writing on the Wall
This September 11th, TFP revisits Ground Zero's signing wall, where people came to say, “I was here. I remember.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES
The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5, 2003
By Michael Judge
NEW YORK — One recent afternoon Christie Cogar and her husband, Steven, drove their three kids from Monmouth Junction, N.J., to lower Manhattan for one last outing before the start of the school year. Sure, they saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. But the main reason for the trip was to visit Ground Zero and leave a message on the “signing wall” that runs along the southern edge.
Imagine their surprise when they saw that the Port Authority had painted it over with thick black paint, blotting out the hundreds of messages below. The only words left now are stenciled ones in imposing white letters: “Post No Bills.”
“Why would they do such a thing?” asked Mrs. Cogar, who had visited Ground Zero last year and found comfort in the words of others. “This is history. Why would they cover it?”
Since returning to The Wall Street Journal’s offices in Lower Manhattan a year ago, I’ve watched with wonder as countless visitors from New Jersey to New Delhi have come to see Ground Zero. To be honest, I’ve found some of them more a nuisance than an inspiration—pilgrims in shorts and T-shirts, sometimes smiling for snapshots. But I’ve always been moved when one of them, stirred to words, would pause before the wall, remove a pen from a purse or pocket and begin writing:
A day to remember forever.
Pam, Baltimore, MD
We will never forget. Rest in Peace.
Michelle Flood, Brea, Calif.
About 100 yards long and eight-feet high, the wall is nothing more than sheets of plywood at the base of the battered Deutsche Bank building. But it has offered a kind of blank page for thoughts, prayers and sorrows:
Many blessings + much love to families, friends, volunteers + heroes of 9-11. God Bless N.Y. —God Bless U.S.A.
Maria Gonzalez, Lubbock, Texas
New Orleans Remembers 9-11-01 R.I.P.
Audrey Felder
Unlike pilgrimages to the Western Wall in Jerusalem or to Mecca, the trip to Ground Zero is a secular pilgrimage. It is made by those who feel the need to be near a place—like the waters above the USS Arizona—where history was forever altered.
The Port Authority has done an excellent job of creating a viewing platform and plaques that honor the dead. Yet in the absence of a permanent memorial, the makeshift wall had become a kind of continuous funeral registry, a place for people from around the world to say, “I was here. I remember.”
Every few months, the Port Authority would cover the words with dull gray paint. But it was a losing battle. Within weeks new visitors would fill the blank wall with new messages.
We love you all. Let His strength carry you!! PS: 91:4
Amy Jelken, Omaha, Nebraska
Our hearts go out to those people who fought for lives and the families of those who lost their lives.
Darren, Ireland
The effect was that of a palimpsest—writing upon writing. There were messages in Japanese and Chinese alongside messages in Hebrew and Arabic. Yes, there was the occasional political message: “Make Love Not War” or “All War Is Terrorism.” But these only added to the uniquely American character of the wall—capturing our muscular pluralism.
No longer. Now all is blackness and stenciled prohibition. (The Port Authority failed to return several phone calls asking for an explanation.)
The Cogars didn’t lose any friends or family on Sept. 11, 2001. But Mrs. Cogar worked with someone whose brother-in-law was lost when the towers came down. “Like many Americans,” she said, “we know someone who lost someone.”
The Cogars eventually found a gray panel, at the bottom of a staircase near the wall, that had yet to be painted over. Beside a message that read, “It means more when you’re here,” Mrs. Cogar’s niece Ashley wrote with a permanent marker: “The Day That Will Live 4 Evr!!”
Mrs. Cogar watched with pride, then said: “Be careful, honey, don’t write over other people’s words.”
TFP IS A PROUD MEMBER OF THE IOWA WRITERS COLLABORATIVE
So very sad for you Americans. Tragically, in this year, there seems to be other destructions of your history.
My sincere sympathy.