The 9/11 Memorial I Never Knew About

And it came from the Russians.

I just got an email from an old friend about a memorial to the victims of 9/11 that I’d never heard about.  You probably don’t know about it, either.

'To the Struggle Against World Terrorism'

I’m stunned in a way that I haven’t heard about this before.  I wanted to be sure it was real and found via Snopes that it actually is what the email says it is.  There’s even a link to a .pdf brochure and the monument’s own website.

Click here to view the entire power point presentation that the email contained. It’s well worth viewing.

For those who don’t want to download the power point file, here’s a couple of quotes:

Standing at 100 feet tall and weighing 175 tons, the monument was shipped from Russia to the United States in six sections — weighing between 28 and 63 tons each — and assembled by a group of Russian artisans. Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli spent several months in the U.S. overseeing construction of the memorial.

The nickel-plated teardrop contained within the monument weighs four tons and measures approximately 40 feet high.

A gift from Tsereteli (ed. – Tsereteli is the artist) and the Russian people, the memorial is made of steel sheathed in bronze. Standing 100 feet high, its center contains a jagged tear. In it, hangs a 40-foot stainless steel teardrop, representing sadness and grief over the loss of life, but also hope for a future free from terror. Etched in granite on an 11-sided base are the names of the nearly 3,000 killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

I’m not going to go on about how we didn’t hear enough about this monument or the people who gave it to us.  I’m just going to ask that even if it’s nine days after the anniversary of this monument’s inspiration, we take time to remember and to thank those who’ve supported us.