Andrew Sicree has an idea. Why not make some of the mangled I-beams from the World Trade Center available to communities wanting to build memorials to those killed during the Sept. 11 attacks?
"Like everybody else, I've seen the stories about how these I-beams are just being cut up and carted to the landfill, and I found myself thinking it would be nice if there was a way they could be turned into some sort of memorial," said Sicree, director of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
Sicree, whose idea was the subject of a recent letter to the editor in The New York Times, said he'd like to hear from Kansas communities that might be interested in getting an I-beam. An I-beam is a structural steel beam that has in cross-section the shape of the capital letter I.
Sicree, 40, said he plans to ask his mayor in University Park to approach New York officials about making the I-beams available.
"I have no idea how sticky this will be, but if there's a way to do it, I'm going to need to know how much interest there is," he said.
Memorials, Sicree said, would not have to be expensive or grandiose.
"My idea is to keep it stark and simple, something you could touch and say, 'Yes, this really happened, it's not just something I saw on TV,'" he said. "And 30 years from now, it would still be there a reminder."
Sicree's idea was news to former Lawrence mayor Erv Hodges, who's coordinating efforts to build a memorial recognizing Lawrence and Douglas County residents killed in war.
"I'd have to think about it," he said. "It would have to relate to a particular locale or a particular community. And It would have to be well done."
Across Kansas, dozens of communities, including Lawrence, have parks, statues and markers commemorating those killed in war or felled by disaster.
"I imagine there will be at least an interest (in the I-beams) in some communities," said Virgil Dean, a historian and researcher with the Kansas State Historical Society.
Dean said Sicree's proposal comes at a time when historians are noticing changes in the way Americans commemorate major events.
"We react differently now because we're connected in different ways," Dean said. "In some ways, we feel closer to those who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center than we do to someone who lives down the street and whose house burned down. That's because we may not know the person down the street, but we feel connected to the World Trade Center because we watched it happen. It's almost like we were there, we saw it on TV."
Another trend: In generations past, Dean said, memorials often were proposed long after the event a war, for example as participants neared the end of their natural lives. Today, memorials spring up almost overnight.
"It's an interesting phenomenon," Dean said.
Sicree said giving communities access to see the I-beams would help make sure the events of Sept. 11 are not forgotten by generations not yet born.
"It would be for the same reason that when you go to Pearl Harbor, you can still see the USS Arizona," he said. "It brings home the fact that this really happened, it's not just something you read about in the history books."
He added: "I'm also Roman Catholic, and it's very common for us to pray for the dead. As I see it, this could be a form of prayer."
Sicree invited anyone interested in exploring the possibility of obtaining an I-beam to call him during the day at (814) 865-6427 or send e-mail to sicree@geosc.psu.edu.
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