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Jan 23, 2007 7:41 pm US/Eastern
Battle Lines Drawn Between 9/11 Families, Mayor
Dispute Over Names On Memorial About To Go National
by Marcia Kramer
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The families of 9/11 victims are going to war with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
On Wednesday they're launching a nationwide campaign to challenge his decision about how to list the victims' names on the 9/11 Memorial.
"He made a choice to stay where he was to do his duty. There was no compromise," Michael Burke said of his brother, FDNY Capt. William Burke, who was killed on 9/11.
William Burke died a hero on 9/11. He sent his men safely out of Tower 1, and then stayed behind to help a man in a wheelchair. Michael Burke thinks the 9/11 Memorial should pay him his due -- include, at minimum, his rank and his age.
"To not identify him by his rank, it's cruel," Michael Burke said.
And that position sets him and thousands of other 9/11 families at odds with Mayor Bloomberg, who wants the people who died on 9/11 and during the 1993 World Trade Center attack to be listed in "no discernible order" and with no mention of rank, the companies they worked for, even their ages.
"It's caused a lot of unnecessary anguish for the family members," Michael Burke said.
On Wednesday, the families, including Edith Lutnick, whose brother, Gary, was one of more than 650 Canter-Fitzgerald employees who died, are starting a grassroots campaign to get the mayor to acknowledge the individual dignity of the 2,979 people who perished.
The campaign will include a 60-second commercial that will begin airing in New York City and a web site where people can compare the two plans and register their opinions.
"Under the mayor's plan it will not say the U.S. Army. It will not say U.S. Navy. It will not say the Fire Department of the City of New York. It will not say the Port Authority Police, and it will not say Canter-Fitzgerald, which lost 658 people," Edith Lutnick said.
The families hope people will think twice about donating to the Memorial until the way the victims are identified is changed.
"Fifty years from now or 100 years from now if all this Memorial conveys to you is that a bunch of people died then the message is going to be lost," Edith Lutnick said.
Mayor Bloomberg's office did not return a request for comment.
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