The Freedom Tower

Frustrated families of 9/11 victims are threatening to hold their own anniversary ceremony on Sept. 11, 2007 unless city and state officials change their mind about where memorial services will be held.
Leaders for the families issued a statement Saturday, saying “As America watches the memorial service on Sept. 11, 2007, we are sure that they will agree that this event should take place at the real and sacred location.”
In the letter, they questioned how thousands of mourners would be accommodated in a small quarter acre park near ground zero.
The AP reports that “Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a letter recently to victims’ families that the ceremony would take place at Zuccotti Park because of the expanding rebuilding work at the trade center site.
“The letter sent to the mayor’s and governor’s offices proposes the use of a smaller space including a construction ramp and haul road for the ceremony. The letter gives a deadline of Tuesday for city and state officials to respond. After that, the groups say they will apply for a permit to hold their own ceremony at ground zero.”
“We really want to work with the mayor’s office. We really don’t want to do a separate ceremony, but we will if we have to,” said Dennis McKeon, who heads ‘Where to Turn, Put it Above Ground.’
The news agency said a mayoral spokeman declined to comment on the letter Saturday. The governor’s office had no comment either. Thousands have gathered in past ceremonies on the western edge of the site, in front of the World Financial Center, to read the names of New York City’s victims in the 2001 attack.