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Time to climb out of the pit (WTC)

August 6, 2007 -- IT'S time to move on. Six years after 9/11, a rift has formed between families who just can't let go and those who need to get on with our lives.

The fault line, where widow has turned against widower, lies directly on Ground Zero.

It's come to this. A small but vocal group of survivors has made a lot of noise lately - set on spending Sept. 11, 2007, at the World Trade Center site. Construction be damned.

But most relatives I've talked to think moving the service nearby, as Mayor Bloomberg insists, is a safer option, now that long-overdue rebuilding is under way.

Worse, they fear that perpetually disgruntled relatives threaten to turn all survivors into a joke.

"To me, they're just using this as a cause celebre to gain publicity," a relative who serves on the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation told me, asking for anonymity.

"I, for one, am happy to see activity at the site."

The notion is more widespread than you'd think.

"You've got people here with unresolved issues," said Charles Wolf, who lost his wife on 9/11. After visiting Ground Zero, he thinks it's too dangerous to host a throng.

"They're going to ruin it," he warned. "They're going to make all the other family members think, 'This is horrible' - then the families won't come to the memorial ceremony because they've heard all this bad news."

Still, Anthony Gardner, whose brother Harvey died on 9/11, wants a permit so relatives may march into Ground Zero on the anniversary. His hired "safety consultant" said it can be done.

Gardner's group has threatened to bring the fight to court, causing construction delays, and endless hard feelings.

"Ground Zero is sacred ground," he said. "The site has special meaning and value."

Not everyone feels a connection to the pit.

"God forbid if something happened to a family member," said Monica Iken - who insists she understands their position, though "I don't know what they're thinking,"

"To me, it's not about the site. It's about what I do to honor my husband on that day."

Rich Pecorella - who vows to stand with the families - still disagrees with them.

"Personally, I'm tired of battling over what I think are small things," he said.

"I don't know how far we can go looking for remains of people. Should we dig up all the streets? I mean, what's going to change?"

Families should take heed. After years of loyalty, the public has lost patience. With the hole in the ground. With obstructionist tactics. Sympathy is giving way to hostility.

Let buildings rise at Ground Zero.

Time to climb out of the pit (WTC) (http://www.nypost.com/seven/08062007/news/columnists/time_to_climb_out_of_that_tragic_pit_columnists_andrea_peyser.htm)

I can kind of understand both sides, so it would be hard for me to take sides. On the one hand I feel the site should just be left alone but, on the other it'll be an in your face to terrorists around the world to go ahead and rebuild.

(This is just my opinion) Grieving is an individual process necessary to healing. Everyone is different and no one else has the right to tell someone "time to get over it".  Everyone grieves differently.

I can't imagine what it must be like to stand in their shoes.

Hello Dreamweaver,

I think that everyone has mixed emotions about this, especially for the survivors and grieving families.

As a nation, I think that there are some things that we can all come to agreement on.

1 - They did not die in vain, and they won't be forgotten.

2 - We are still learning from that day, and many millions of innocent people will eventually benefit from the terrible losses that day. In fact, we have no idea how many millions of innocent people have already benefited from what we learned that day. This doesn't hint that we don't have much more to learn.

I like the idea of building something to help us remember what happened that day and why? I want to remember the victims and their families. I want to see the lasting good that can come of out this for future generations. I definitely want to see lessons learned from the terrible sacrifices that were made that day for all of us. I think this is something new that we don't completely understand yet, but we must come to grips with it and know this could happen many more times. I would hope that this one big lesson would be enough, but it might not be. Regardless, nothing happened in vain on 9/11, and no drop of sweat or blood can be wasted. This regards our freedoms and way of life, so it should bring us all together for hosts of other innocents. I hope and pray this is the end result, so we should never forget what happened that day.