Debra Burlingame writes about the recently dedicated 9/11 flight crew memorial — what it looks like and what it means — with elegant clarity.

It makes perfect sense that this memorial would not be an abstract work of art with its subject matter intentionally obscured, if not impossible to discern. Instead, it is a classical figurative rendering of the human beings who lived and died on that hellish day, people whose lives and deeds represent those essential virtues, which cannot be vanquished by force of steel and fire.

This is a memorial composed of poignant images denoting courage, dedication, and commitment, virtues that our forefathers and foremothers possessed more than two hundred thirty years ago at the birth of the nation, and which are indispensable to the effort of preserving our way of life generations into the future.

It is significant to me that this million-dollar memorial was entirely a grassroots effort, funded and built through the dollars of ordinary people, without the support of national endowments, political affiliations, or government money.

"First taken, last remembered. Let us never for get their bravery." 

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