This is going to be a short, albeit controversial message. This is about Flight 93's memorial that will be completed in Western Pennsylvania a few years from now. I will give you my account as to how I stumbled across this, and my thoughts on it. Ol' Liaf here is a conspiracy theorist at heart, but when the facts show themselves, this is one conspiracy theory you don't have to be a lunatic to believe. As a matter of fact, research the facts yourself and see if you do not come to similar conclusions. "Wha? What are you talking about Liaf?" Let me tell you my story:
We all know about the tragic events that transpired on that fateful day September 11, 2001. Two planes crashed into the twin towers, another into the Pentagon, and then there was a fourth plane supposedly aimed for the Whitehouse (so goes some speculation) when the passengers overtook the hijackers and ditched the plane in Western Pennsylvania. This was flight 93 where the famous quote "Let's Roll" was stated by Todd Beamer. I think we are mostly familiar with these accounts.
As of the present, there is a temporary memorial there, but for the tenth anniversary, an elaborate memorial was voted on and planned for completion in 2011 at the crash site. Maybe many of us knew about this, but what we did not hear (as the news media stayed quiet about this) was the controversial symbolism in the memorial. When it comes to the media, what else is new?
My knowledge of this, and I say this to my shame, was only brought to my attention a few short months ago when a news article about the father of one of the passengers, Tom Burnett Sr., wanted the name of his son withheld from the memorial because he saw that it was full of Islamic symbolism (the design consideration was going on for over two years, and this controversy up to now was mostly kept quiet). One of the main components of the memorial is an arc or crescent of beautiful red maples circling around the crash site area. This in itself is seen by some as representing an Islamic crescent used for their symbolism and seen on flags. The design caught the attention of blogger Alec Rawls who does, by the way, an excellent study and critique on this design. For you see, the issue that caught ol' Liaf's attention here was not only the shape, per se, but the direction in which critics claim it faces. The crescent faces toward Mecca, the same direction that Muslims turn to pray! This direction is called the Qibla and there are actually calculators online that a Muslim can use to find the direction to Mecca at any point on the earth. Now, if anyone wants to make a claim like that, I am the first one to jump on testing that theory given I am into math and spherical trigonometry and the like. I wanted to make sure that this was not some doofus taking a flat earth map and drawing a line from Pennsylvania to Mecca and claiming that was the direction. For those of you into math, one cannot do that. That is the rhumb line direction, but not the true, shortest distance, great arc direction used in navigation and astronomy. Before I looked at the proposed design, I said to myself that if such a claim is to be made, it better point somewhere northeast because that is the true direction to the Middle East.
Let me tell you this: It not only pointed northeast, but my calculations confirmed this to under 2º error. (Alec Rawls does an excellent job stating the slight discrepancy on his site). But for all practical purposes, this is accurate enough for Muslims. This is not bunk. In addition to this, there are other features of the memorial that stand out as well. Two examples are a copse of trees within the crescent that is located where a star is placed on an Islamic crescent (such as seen on flags) and a "tower of voices" structure where its shadow falls on a row of trees at Islamic prayer times (in other words, it functions as an Islamic prayer sundial). Coincidence? My stance is that even if it were, the fact that one noticed such "coincidences" is enough to maybe reconsider the design, as we should not want a memorial with symbolism that could be seen as embracing the religion of the hijackers. After all, if the design was "accidentally" shaped like a cross, or star of David, I'm sure there would have been enough protest about that (especially by the news media and other liberal persuasions).
As to the direction, all sort of denial and/or ignoring went on when this was brought to everyone's attention. Then of course, you have "experts" such as this one who comments on the direction to Mecca (a geospatial professor no less) that stated, "Anything can point toward Mecca, because the earth is round." Yeah, brilliant. If a student in his class came up with such an answer regarding the bearing between two points on earth, I'm sure this same professor would flunk that student fast enough. Yet, it is OK for such an expert to give us this denial-type (like the government does) double talk? In reality, there is a direction to Mecca, and it is called the azimuth or bearing. This concept is well known in navigation and astronomy. My only (constructive) criticism of Alec Rawls is that he excessively tries to prove to critics using the Qibla calculator that the memorial faces Mecca as if this is some new concept that everyone has to be convinced about. If I were in his shoes, I would simply point out that the direction Mecca is determined by a spherical triangle. The one side of the triangle is a great circle arc from the pole to the crash site, the other side is the pole to Mecca, and the third side is the connection between the crash site and Mecca. This forms a curved triangle on the surface of the earth in which the sides and angles between the sides can easily be determined by spherical trigonometry in like manner that plane trigonometry calculates triangle side lengths and angles between them. Thus, if one wants to argue the direction I would simply point out that math is math and the results are not negotiable (no matter how gray liberals like their answers). If this were not true, boats and airplanes would be getting lost all the time. It is an exact enough science to captains and pilots for sure. So, I confirm the memorial points toward Mecca. End of story. Case closed. I don't want to hear any other "buts" because it would just be asinine talk. Or again, if the designers want to claim otherwise, then I will say this indisputable concrete fact. If Muslims would create such a mosque facing Mecca next to the memorial, then I guarantee you it would face the same way, even if they did not know the memorial was next door. Try to argue that! You can't! So, what do you think the critics of the memorial ought to think with such a "coincidence"?
It's sad to say that the public, and especially the families of the victims who voted this despicable design in, fell for this design. You can write your congressman if you want, but I have my doubts as to the effectiveness of this. In fact, the design was subtly changed in response to criticism, but only token things. For example, some trees were added to it to seemingly change the shape somewhat, but the markers and structures that define the end of the crescent are still there. And the public is being lead hook, line and sinker into this deception because they do not understand math and refuse to see the other symbolism. Ol' Liaf here even saw a talk show where the commentator asked Alec Rawls how can a circle point towards Mecca? The audience mindlessly clapped and cheered so that the noise was too loud to let him get a word in edgewise and then the show ended. They did not want to hear it. And the designers and politicians behind all this follow the money and power trail. They did their brainwashing to the public and are going to make a mint investing in this memorial. Why should they care if the enemy is glorified? I saw a radical shift in the thinking of the people in the last 10-15 years, and even more so since 911, and I do not like it. Some of us with old-fashioned values may look at the very least odd, and maybe even considered dangerous. I think the end times are finally coming upon us as I can see the mind of antichrist taking over the puppet public's thoughts.
I would suggest for those of you who would still approve of the memorial to open your eyes and do the calculations yourself. And if you can't, then do me a favor at least. Don't bother to open your mouth because if you can't do a straightforward calculation, you do not have a valid opinion regarding the direction it faces, let alone a valid opinion about other features such as the sundial part.