September Eleventh and the The Culture of Politicizing Tragedies

In August, Florida Republicans pushed for the removal of a rainbow crosswalk in Orlando, a memorial commemorating 49 individuals who were shot and killed at a LGBTQ nightclub in 2016. The sidewalk was swiftly painted over by the Florida Department of Transportation. 

The next day, members of the Orlando community came together to restore the crosswalk using chalk. And when the rain washed it away, they came back to color it in. Today, police troopers patrol the crosswalk 24/7. 

In July, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told the nation, “Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork.”

Memorials are not political. They are sacrosanct. The existence of queer people is not political. Honoring the dead is not a political statement, not something to argue over on a national stage.  

Erasing and politicizing a memorial for victims of a hate-fueled mass shooting is like swiping flowers from a gravesite and stomping them into the ground, justifying it by saying the roses and lilies were politically motivated. 

This month, sources from the Trump administration told The New York Times that Trump is seeking to take control of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in Manhattan. 

Governor Kathy Hochul says, “The 9/11 Memorial belongs to New Yorkers — the families, survivors, and first responders who have carried this legacy for more than two decades and ensured we never forget.”

With Trump’s attempted federal monopolization of the 9/11 Museum, and the Florida Department of Transportation’s effort to desaturate the LGBTQ memorial in Orlando, it’s clear that the Trump administration’s attempts at effacing memorials for those lost in malicious massacres is indicative of a greater lack of empathy in our culture. 

When we think it’s acceptable to touch memorials for those lost—to paint them black and take proprietorship over something that should be sacred—what do we have left to revere? To memorialize? 

Despite efforts by an administration that seeks to raze memorials to the ground, don’t be afraid to paint the road with rainbow-colored chalk. Bring roses to the gravesite. Leave the memorials unblemished, just as they should be.