Some victims' kin object to plans for 9/11 memorial

A plan of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum to create a special exhibit to honor the nearly 3,000 victims of the terror attacks is having a tough sell with some family members.

Wednesday, the memorial announced it was inviting the families to contribute photos, personal objects, audio remembrances and other items to create a permanent exhibit at the museum to be located at Ground Zero.

The plan is to create a "Wall of Faces" depicting each of the victims who died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as the six who died in the 1993 trade center attack. In addition, the museum plans to create a lengthy video sequence in which each of the victims is separately depicted in photographs and audio reminiscences.

"If we do our job right, when people come to the museums, people will get to know the victims as they were," said 9/11 Memorial president Joe Daniels. "There pretty much is nothing more powerful than to hear a father talking about a daughter who was lost, [a] mother talking about her son."

Daniels said the museum wants families to respond by September, but will extend the deadline if needed. Museum spokesman Michael Frazier said about 400 pictures have been submitted so far, leaving about 2,500 more to be collected.

But some outspoken relatives of victims are upset with the planned display of the photographs seven stories below ground level. They also think the memorial is getting too complicated and losing sight of what its job should be.

"I think anything to do with the victims should be on ground level or second floor," said Sally Regenhard, one of the more outspoken family members, who lost her firefighter son Christian. "There is no reason for grief-stricken family members having to go seven stories below."

FDNY Lt. James McCaffrey, who lost his battalion chief brother in-law Orio Palmer in the South Tower, said the museum and memorial are getting too complicated.

"A lot of Americans are just unaware of how gargantuan this memorial is," said McCaffrey, adding all he wants is a "simple memorial."

McCaffrey is also upset over plans to incorporate a section that displays material and history about the terrorists involved. While he thinks it is proper to devote some space to the historical record, McCaffrey said the current plan seems excessive. "We are not displaying a lot of information about the terrorists," said Frazier in response.

Neither Regenhard nor McCaffrey plan to send any memorabilia to the exhibit.

For some, the memorial plans only underscore the absence of a place to grieve. Diane Corning, of Scotch Plains, N.J., lost her son Matthew, 26, and said "they are ignoring the fact that we don't have a cemetery."

But Susan Lenoir of Locust Valley, whose bond trader husband J. Robinson "Rob" Lenoir died in the South Tower, said she will consider sending some things for inclusion in the exhibit. "How do you say something in a few sound bites? . . . It is tough," she said.