Murray, Utah – A theme is emerging.
In Las Vegas, the spontaneous 9/11 memorial that started a few minutes after the attacks became known 25 years ago is no longer around. The craziness you’d expect of a Las Vegas strip memorial has been replaced by a gray-on-gray granite memorial at the foot of the faux Statue of Liberty at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino.
It’s so earnest that a couple of people dressed up in cartoon outfits – aka Donald Duck and either Mickey or Minnie Mouse, we couldn’t tell from distance – approached the memorial area and then made a quick U-turn. Toons, apparently, don’t feel welcome anymore. All of the stuff that once was part of the memorial is being stored and preserved for academic research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Now, something similar has transpired in Murray, minus the academics.
For years, there was a 9/11 memorial bench somewhere around here, in the arboretum at Murray Park, the lush and surprisingly complex center of Murray, a town 10 miles south of Salt Lake City.
So we looked for that bench, in earnest. And in moderate heat.
Then we asked our new best friend, Robert Wyss, who works at the park.
Wyss smiled and shook his head; didn’t know anything about it.
But he’s an affable man who was willing to make no fewer than four calls to a superintendent who answered questions we asked via Wyss.
Turns out Murray’s old 9/11 memorial was simply too controversial.
It was something about the wording.
“On September 11, 2001, a handful of men put their beliefs on the line in a stand for terrorism. As a result, the discarding of their lives cost the lives of world citizens whose children, families and loved ones will carry emotional scars for the balance of their lives. May those who come here to ponder the results of this senseless destruction take a stand for freedom and the cause of all that is honest and good.”
To be honest, when we read that, online, before starting this trip, we were hooked by the “honest and good” stuff. It felt like a big ask; we wanted to know more. Hence Murray’s appearance on our itinerary.
Turns out, we should have read closer, possibly while awake.
The first line, the one about “a handful of men” putting their beliefs on the line and the stand “for terrorism,” is squishy, as anti-terror talk goes. Could be a nod to the hijackers. Probably not, but… maybe.
That became the story anyway.
For years, the bench was routinely vandalized. The supervisor told Wyss he finally hauled the plaque away several years ago, “in the dead of night.”
Today, while Murray Park has a memorial to the town’s history as a center of lead smelting, and the park has an outstanding amphitheatre (a Linda Ronstadt tribute concert is happening this week), there is no evidence that a 9/11 memorial ever existed.
Too bad. We’re still interested in “all that is honest and good.”