(NewsGlobal.com)- For the second year running, anti-war vandals vandalized a 9/11 memorial at Michigan State University.
The tribute, which included the words “Never Forget” and was flanked by 2,977 American flags to honor the number of individuals murdered on September 11, 2001, was put up by the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter on Sunday. By Tuesday morning, graffiti artists had added “bloody” handprints to the memorial and the words “461,000 Iraqi civilians,” which appeared to refer to the number of people who had died in the Iraq War.
Just one year ago, vandals painted “Israel” over an American flag and removed the “Never” from the Young Americans for Freedom memorial at Michigan State’s “Never Forget” plaque.
As part of its 9/11: Never Forget Project, Young Americans for Freedom has been building memorials on high school and college campuses since 2003. According to a spokeswoman, twenty of the group’s monuments have suffered vandalism since the project’s inception in 2003. A comparable memorial’s American flags were removed in 2021 by a student leader at Washington University in St. Louis because he deemed them “insidious” and “a political prop sustaining American hegemony.”
According to Jaryn Crouson, head of the Michigan State Young Americans for Freedom chapter, such damage demonstrates the significance of the memorials.
According to Crouson, many individuals don’t believe this incident should be remembered or don’t share in its significance. That is the reason for what they do.
The university instructed landscapers to remove the flags from the memorial’s perimeter after vandals vandalized it. They claimed the monument had been “abandoned.”
“It is shocking that the university decided that 48 hours was insufficient time to exhibit a 9/11 monument,” Crouson continued.
There is “no rule in place that would limit the speech on the rock,” according to a representative for Michigan State University, which “supports freedom of speech in all forms.” A request for comment was similarly ignored by the university’s student government.
This month, Young Americans for Freedom interviewed students at George Mason University to assess their familiarity with the 9/11 events. Many people had never heard of al-Qaeda and were unaware that it had planned the assaults.
