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Does the hallowedness of the WTC site derive from the fact that so many died there? Or does it derive from the way they died? I say neither. There is no getting around the fact that hallowedness is a religious concept. Something can’t become hallowed all by itself—not even a cemetery. It takes a religious rite to render something sacred and holy, and no such consecrating words were spoken over the WTC site. But even if one had been conducted, would it be binding on nonbelievers? I think not. Seeing as we don’t live in a religious state, all protestations about WTC hallowedness are just loopy poetry and bad metaphor. The Pentagon, also struck by the 9/11 jihadists, has its memorial, but almost nobody calls that crash site hallowed.

Charles Krauthammer used the hallowed dodge in his Washington Post op-ed as a way to argue against the construction of the Islamic center.

“When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to those who suffered and died there—and that such ownership obliges us, the living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated,” Krauthammer wrote.

But if Ground Zero belongs to those who suffered and died there, why is Larry Silverstein building on it? Because he acquired the site. The place is not sacred. It’s profane. Just look at the property records. All of this talk about hallowed ground is a lame attempt to leverage ownership of 9/11—something that can’t be owned, I’ve already insisted—and to commandeer the collective memory of the attacks. Don’t the people who can’t stop talking about hallowed ground realize that they’re the ones who are needlessly politicizing the slaughter?

I’m all for remembering the murdered, preserving dignity and memory, and even building memorials. I don’t defile graveyards. I don’t desecrate churches, synagogues, mosques, or Buddhist temples. I don’t burn Qurans. I respectfully observe funeral motorcades. I blaspheme, but that’s my own business. But I draw the line at spiritualizing the WTC site and its vicinity. We honor the dead not by fetishizing the memory of their gruesome death but by respecting the living.

Jack Shafer, “Nobody Owns 9/11” (Slate.com)

Source: thatandycohen