NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Democratic congressman Max Rose, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, has asked the federal government to take over the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, calling the memorial's now-reversed decision to cancel the annual “Tribute in Light” due to COVID-19 concerns a “slap in the face” to families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, according to a report.
In a letter sent to National Parks Service Acting Director Margaret Everson on Saturday, Rose said the federal government should be responsible for managing the memorial and museum in lower Manhattan, the New York Post reported.
Rose said he hoped to discuss “any and all measures the federal government — and (the National Parks Service) — can take to safeguard the memory of the victims," the outlet reported.
“While it has been nearly two decades since that tragic day, the pain remains as vivid as it was all those years ago,” Rose wrote in the letter, according to the outlet. “That is why the decision by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum to not only alter the deeply personal ceremony to mark the attacks, but also cancel the Tribute in Light was a slap in the face to the families who already lost so much."
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum in mid-August announced that this year’s “Tribute in Light,” a public art installation that shines twin beams of light into the sky over Manhattan every year on Sept. 11, would be canceled, due to concerns that the COVID-19 health risk would be “far too great for the large crew required to produce (the tribute).”
The institution reversed its decision to cancel the tribute two days later, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New York state would provide health personnel to ensure workers could set up and hold the tribute safely.
The memorial and museum has also drawn criticism for its decision to hold off on hosting a live name-reading ceremony at this year’s event.
Its president and CEO Alice Greenwald last month said the tradition — during which a crowd gathers as family members read the names of 9/11 victims from a stage — would not be safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as social distancing would be difficult and speakers would have to remove their masks.
A recording of family members reading their loved ones’ names will be broadcast throughout the plaza at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 instead, she said.
1010 WINS has reached out to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and the National Parks Service for comment on Rose’s letter.