Shanksville Flight 93 Memorial
A few weeks ago my daughters and I drove out to Shanksville, to see the Flight 93 memorial. It isn’t very far from where we live—less than an hour’s driving time along route 30. On 9/11, after having the images of the collapsing towers burned into my long-term memory, I drove to a meeting at a coffee shop that looks onto route 30. Emergency vehicles kept rushing past, heading east toward Shanksville. What a time of shock and disbelief! The student whom I met that morning told me, when she finally arrived, that there were reports of car bombs in Pittsburgh. People really were afraid to do anything. After the morning’s events, you could believe almost anything.
Although PA is a blue state, most of its counties are red. And route 30 takes you right into the heart of it. You pass over one ridge after another, and pass one bar & grill after another, past the Jennerstown Raceway, and beyond Mountaintop School of Taxidermy, and even past the exterminator in Stoytstown with an 8-foot preying mantis out front (the p-m is wearing a Steeler’s shirt ). Only two signs tell you which turns to take for Shanksville and the memorial, so if you aren’t careful you end up backing up, as I did, to correct for your inattention.
Right now the memorial consists mainly of a 10 x 30 foot frame holding green-vinyled chain link fencing. On it and next to it are the plaques, badges, and miscellany that people have left in the last few years. The main thing you notice first are the large number of caps, the kind that used to have seed company names on them. These are from all over the country and from all kinds of people, bearing names of VFDs and Veteran’s organizations and tourist destinations. Also, two granite monuments, the size of very large grave markers, memorialize the site on behalf of two different motorcycling organizations.
But it’s hard to miss the 7 or 8 foot cross standing next to the fence, and all around you find abundant Christian iconography—verses of scripture, prayers, images. More abundant than crosses, though, are angels. Apparently there’s some notion represented in the memorial that people turn into angels. At a right angle to the frame/fence are 40 lawn ornament –type tin angels, in red , white, and blue, with the names of the 40 passengers and crew who died on the flight. But there are lots of angels spread throughout the memorial area.
The actual site of the crash lies about a quarter mile away from the area where tokens of grief were left. There's something appropriate about that. The plane crashed into a field where the closest reminder of humanity abandoned mining equipment.
The outpouring of personal feelings represented at the site is very moving. It seems a shame that the official memorial will displace this, though I’m sureall of these tokens will all be put into a museum. Of course, my view is that once you put something into a museum you pretty much guarantee that it will be ignored.