SOMERSET — The petite, typically soft-spoken wife of a passenger killed aboard Flight 93 lashed out Saturday at protesters criticizing perceived Islamic symbolism in the design of a memorial for the hijacked plane.
“Wow. Such hate,” said Sandra Felt, whose husband, Edward Felt, was among 40 innocent passengers who died heroically when the jet crashed into a reclaimed strip mine near Shanksville on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I wasn’t prepared for this. Needless to say, I’m quite upset by it ... I would not support a design that honors Muslims or any of the kind.”
Her passionate response came at the end of a highly charged Flight 93 federal advisory commission and task force meeting at the Somerset County Courthouse.
With about two dozen protesters sitting in the courtroom, retired Marine Col. Harry Beam of Johnstown presented the commission with petitions containing more than 5,000 signatures demanding that the design be changed.
“They all believe there is no place for Islamic symbolism or anything else that would elevate the terrorists,” said Beam, adding he feels so strongly about the issue he attended the meeting despite his father passing away earlier in the day.
California conservative author Alec Rawls and Thomas Burnett Sr., whose son, Thomas Burnett Jr., was killed on Flight 93, have spearheaded an Internet drive to scrap the design. They contend a proposed semicircular arc of trees near the crash site is an Islamic crescent that points toward Mecca and that a “Tower of Voices” near the memorial’s entrance is a crescent as well.
“It is truly unfortunate that I must come a third time to warn you you are about to make a terrible mistake,” said Bill Steiner of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, saying he had spoken with Burnett Sr. earlier in the week.
Felt and Burnett were among a 15-member jury that selected the design by Los Angeles architect Paul Murdoch from among more than 1,000 entries. Burnett has said the design was approved by a vote of 9 to 6, and has said he has been against the design from the beginning.
Felt recalled taking her daughters, then 14 and 12, to the crash site six years ago.
“What is going to happen here, Mom?” they asked.
“We see this as the site where our loved ones remains remain,” she added. “I support this design. My children support this design.”
Organizers have said the petitions will have no effect on the design or construction. They have vowed to have the memorial’s initial phase completed by the 10th anniversary of the crash.
Joanne Hanley, Flight 93 superintendent for the National Park Service in Somerset, said the bowl around the crash site will be finished by first, followed by the planting of 40 groves of trees and construction of a visitors center, then entrance roads and the Tower of Voices.
Getting the more than $60 million memorial ready for dedication is expected to carry a pricetag of about $22.5 million. So far, about $12.5 million in private donations has been raised toward a goal of $30 million.
Christine Fraser of New Jersey, whose sister died on the plane, told protesters they simple could choose not to visit the memorial.
“Let our loved ones rest in peace,” she said.
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