Using vertical columns from the fallen World Trade Center in New York, limestone blocks from where American Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, and a large rock from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 went down, Maryland’s memorial may be the only one to feature elements from all three sites. A fitting tribute given that, altogether, 63 Maryland souls—as young as 3 and as old as 71—perished that day.
“In less than two hours, our world changed,” says Randall Griffin, CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust, member of the Maryland Commission on Public Art, and chair of the Maryland 9/11 Memorial Advisory Committee. “We haven’t had a place in Maryland where people can go to remember. This memorial now gives you a location to remember and commemorate—and not forget.”
Lest anyone could forget, the location of this memorial, in the shadow of Baltimore’s World Trade Center, will serve as a potent reminder. The building itself will act as a sundial and, on September 11 of every year, the building’s shadow will move slowly across the carved inscriptions and names of those lost to us, marking the time of that day’s horrific events.
While we will have more on this memorial in our next issue, the reason I bring it up now is simply to ask for help.
This memorial costs money, about $2 million. Remembering what happened—and honoring the lives of the Marylanders we lost—is important. This memorial needs and deserves your support.
Please do what I’ve done: Visit www.maryland911memorial.org, click on “donate,” and, yes, donate—whatever you can, whatever you’re comfortable with, whatever your budget allows. Your support for a memorial that will surely touch so many will be greatly appreciated.
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