SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!

Arizona memorial acknowledged to have some hurtful comments! FINALLY!!

Controversial statements on Arizona's 9/11 Memorial will be re-evaluated, but only after the Nov. 7 election, to take it out of the political arena, the chairman of the memorial commission said Friday.

Billy Shields acknowledged that some inscriptions on the two-week-old memorial at the state Capitol have been hurtful to military personnel and others.

A re-evaluation will address those concerns, he said, as well as the criticism that has been pouring in during the last week.

"I'll say that I'm sorry to anyone who was hurt by this," Shields said at a morning news conference. "That was never the intent."

Shields' comments were also laced with anger and bitterness at the accusations that have been slung at commission members over the past week. Attacks on the members' patriotism were wrong and misplaced, he said.

"Shame on those people for personally attacking the commissioners at their homes and in their workplaces," he said, adding that some members' employers received calls, demanding that the commission member be fired for participating in the memorial's creation.

Details of when the commission will next meet are not set, but Shields said it will happen after the election, to avoid what he called its "carnival" atmosphere.

On Monday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Len Munsil called for the memorial to be torn down and replaced with one that he deems more patriotic. Since then, critics have tried to link the memorial to Gov. Janet Napolitano, who appointed half of the commission members. Former Gov. Jane Hull appointed the other half before she left office in January 2003.

"I firmly believe this would not have been an issue if this were not a political year," said Shields, who has been a Napolitano supporter.

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A couple of items:

1. He acknowledges that the memorial was hurtful to some people...that is a start!

2. I never head ANYONE accusing them of being unpatriotic, the accusations that came around was that THEY were using it as an opportunity to take a shot politically at Bush and the WOT.

3. Anyone who made phone calls harassing these peoples employers MUST be dealt with in any legal manner possible. As well, if calls were made to peoples homes, those must be dealt with as well.

4. He is accusing us of making this an issue during an election cylce. Poor liberals .. waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh the 5 year anniversary happened in an election cycle...boo freaking ho...this would have been JUST AS BIG AN ISSUE had it happened any other time, so that is where he is wrong!!!!!!!! We COULD turn it around on him and say he picked those inscriptions during an election year in an attempt to kill conservative thought...but then, we are better than that..no?

5. He is a supporter of Napolitano, no big surprise that he took as long as he did to issue an acknowledgement. Also explains why he didnt see the big deal..he is a liberal.

6. The power of the Conservative voice in the blogosphere rang LOUD and rang PROUD during this, thanks to everyone who kept on top of it...but lets not forget this issue needs to be resolved. I would give you an email address to send a letter to encouraging them to make sure the public is informed of when and where the meeting is to take place, but there is none on the website, so if someone has an email address, please let me know in the comments! BTW The 9/11 memorial page is here.

God bless America and God bless our troops, we continue to hold the families of the 9/11 attack in our prayers.