The father of Tom Burnett, one of the heroes of Flight 93 on September 11th, is asking his son’s name be left off the Flight 93 memorial.

Tom Burnett Sr., the Northfield man whose son was killed on Flight 93 when the hijacked airliner crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, wants his son’s name withheld from a planned victims’ memorial because he finds the crescent design and other features offensive because of what he said are their Islamic symbolism.

The Flight 93 memorial has been a source of controversy from day one.

Burnett Sr., who was on the panel that picked the winning design in 2005, originally named the “Crescent of Embrace,” was on the losing side of the 9-6 vote to approve the design.

Here’s that original design.

You can see more on the original design here

Burnett’s father has been fighting an uphill battle trying to draw attention to the flawed design.

On Saturday, Burnett Sr. said he wants an investigation into why — two years after he raised his objections — the planned memorial will still have such things as the crescent, stars and a tower that he sees as Islamic symbols.

Burnett Sr. said that he would rather not withhold his son’s name from the memorial but that he can’t get anyone to listen to his concerns.

The memorial is definitely raising serious questions and concerns. In the story Burnett Sr. says that Rep. Jim Ramstad (R MN3) contacted him to say “he agreed with” his concerns. One would hope Minnesota’s Congressional Delegation could help get to the bottom of the memorial’s new design.

Here’s the latest sketch of the the Flight 93 Memorial.

You can find more on the Flight 93 Memorial on the official website, including more information on the new design which appears to still include a crescent.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Minnesota, National, Politics, War on Terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.