In last month's letter to the LMDC, the Freedom Center's directors invoked the spirit of Thomas Jefferson. That would be the same Thomas Jefferson who made a Faust.ian bargain by accepting the continuation of slavery as the price of having the Constitution ratified. Would pointing that out in an exhibit constitute America-bashing?

When an institution dedicated to the understanding of freedom pledges never to "blame America," it has already demoted itself to a timid promoter of platitudes. Either the International Freedom Center pledges to interpret all future controversies in a light that favors whoever happens to be in the White House, or it risks breaking its vow. There is no legalese ironclad enough to distinguish a legitimate critique of government policy from unpatriotic slander.

Even the staunchest patriot would have to acknowledge that once in a while the United States deserves some blame. To refuse to acknowledge this is a form of self-inflicted intellectual imprisonment.

There are now only two solutions. The first, and least likely, is that the LMDC grows some instant backbone and tells the victims' families that they do not have the power to control two museums. The second is that the officials cave in and give the families what they really want: a memorial quadrant given over to the contemplation of those two terrible hours in September. Instead of regenerating through culture, Ground Zero will remain a city of the dead.