Frm: Mark Rabonowitz

I, like most New Yorkers, have struggled with a feeling of inadequacy
and insignificance after the magnitude of loss and devastation these
monsters visited on us Sept. 11.  Everything that had previously seemed
so significant before this event, work issues, personal problems, etc,
suddenly paled in comparison to the needs of the moment.  Yet, almost
immediately, the
sculptures and monuments around the city that I have worked on for the
last
decade became the centers of impromptu memorials to the lost.  It was as
if this concept that we have always surmised, that outdoor sculpture
somehow contains the virtuous soul of the public life of a place,
literally embodying our dreams for our cities and towns, turned out to
be true.  Throughout the city, at grand statues of Washington or small
flagpole bases in parks, people have been placing candles, photos,
placards and signs as testaments to the moment.

Yesterday we started cleaning and maintaining the Fireman's Memorial in
preparation for an annual event that, if it occurs, will be a public
recognition of the lost heros. The monument is a moving tribute to the
lost from the fire department put up at the turn of the last century.
How much more moving is it now that more fire fighters have died in a
single day than in the entire history of the NYC fire department?  We
gingerly moved candles and flowers, teddy bears and signs from one side
to the other of the basin while we cleaned the bronze and stone.  It was
hard to do but did help us to feel that our work, rather than being
peripheral and insignificant, actually was at the core of the moment. If
this is a struggle over cultures, civilization and values than surely
the preservation of our public monuments as symbols of our beliefs must
be important.  It is those very symbols and the beliefs that they
represent, as well as our lives and buildings, that these men wish to
destroy.

XXX