The group “Take Back the Memorial” will hold a rally today at Ground Zero to publicize the hijacking of this sacred ground by zealots who wish to turn the memorial into a “Blame America Pavilion” rather than a tribute to those who died. (HT: Little Green Footballs)

For three long years we have played by the rules as set forth by Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. It got us nowhere.

We want a proper, fitting and respectful September 11th Memorial for the 3,000 innocent souls who perished that day. Not “a history lesson about tolerance.”

The planners of the World Trade Center Memorial have been put on notice that we are going over their heads to make our case to the American people. Please join us for a press conference to kick off our national campaign to enlist the American people in a Fight for Ground Zero. Our loved ones deserve no less.

The planners of the memorial include some pretty powerful movers and shakers. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is responsible for all aspects of the Memorial at Ground Zero, has a list of Board Members that reads like a Who’s Who of Wall Street and government. The professional staff is large and the entire enterprise is funded with both private donations (mostly from Foundations and other not for profit groups) and grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Therein lies the problem with any effort to stop plans for this travesty. This is a huge undertaking. The LMDC is not only rebuilding Ground Zero, they’re changing the face of the entire lower part of the island. Their list of projects is awesome. They’ve integrated the rebuilding efforts into a revitalization program for neighborhoods. They’ve got plans to promote business development throughout lower Manhattan. And they’ve been charged with restoring transportation infrastructure in the area.

In short, Ground Zero hasn’t just been hijacked by the moonbats. The entire effort has also been hijacked by a bunch of blue bloods who are feeding at the government trough by piggybacking plans for the Memorial on top of a massive effort by local and state government to rebuild this devastated part of New York city.

I have no doubt that much of what the LMDC is doing is necessary, especially as their mission relates to neighborhoods destroyed by the after effects of the collapse of the towers and transportation issues like rebuilding infrastructure. Like most urban renewal projects, it is promising much. What remains to be seen is whether or not it can deliver.

The real question is why the heck the Ground Zero Memorial is under the direction of this crew in the first place. Why not set up something totally independent of the rebuilding effort?

The answer lies in the second rule of government spending (The first being “Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?”): “Wherever possible, bring politicians along for the ride.”

Every New York politician of note is connected to the rebuilding effort and the Memorial lends a patina of respectability to the endeavor. Instead of the usual grasping for contracts and the tug of war between competing interests, the Memorial is a symbol of altruism that cleanses the motives of the politicians, bankers, business people, and other moneymen that are all digging in and feeding on the federal largess.

While we should all support the efforts of “Take Back the Memorial,” I’m not very optimistic about getting anything changed at this point. The momentum behind the project is awesome. They’ve been dithering for months over a design for the Memorial and now that its almost finalized it will take a herculean effort to stop it.

It’s going to be up to the families of victims themselves to stop this monstrosity. Only their efforts, along with the efforts of the rest of us who support them, will be able to stop the rolling tide of money and power that threatens to overwhelm what should have been a simple, dignified place of remembrance for those who lost their lives that tragic day,