On the theory that misery likes company, New Yorkers upset with the way things are going at ground zero may want to catch up on what is happening with the memorial being created in Pennsylvania to mark the space where Flight 93 crashed. Flight 93 is the one that on which a band of heroic passengers – one of whom uttered the now immortal line, “Let’s roll” – revolted against their captors and saved countless lives and, possibly, the Congress or the White House. The committee responsible for selecting the initial design of the site in a Pennsylvania field has stunned many by selecting a planting of hundreds of red maples in the shape of – wait for it – the Islamic crescent.

One doesn’t have to be a bigot to wonder what the committee could possibly be thinking. There’s an account of it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (a link to which we first found on michellemalkin.com). It describes what the designer of the memorial dubs a “Crescent of Embrace” and the applause that greeted the unveiling of the design. For an account of the horrified reaction among others, however, one needs to go to the World Wide Web, where Ms. Malkin’s site, among others, has begun reporting the sense that the idea of marking this event with an Islamic crescent is, at best, bizarre and, at worst, a calculated affront.

“This is not about any religion per se,” the memorial’s architect Paul Murdoch was quoted by the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown, Pa., as saying, according to Ms. Malkin. “It’s a spiritual space, and a sacred place, but it’s open to anyone.” That’s clearly not the way it’s going to be taken. We went to the architect’s Web site, where some images of the design are posted. We kept looking for an American flag or some patriotic symbol and just couldn’t find any. Perhaps we missed it. We hope so. The revolt on Flight 93 is going to go down in American history as one of the great moments, and “Let’s roll” is going to rank with the retort that General McAuliffe, surrounded by the enemy en route to Bastogne, delivered to the Nazi demand for surrender, “Nuts.”

There is, incidentally, a museum in Bastogne known as the “Nuts Museum,” a modest place commemorating the spirit of General McAuliffe’s soldiers. Imagine if it had been built in, say, the shape of the German eagle. Ms. Malkin reports that the National Park Service will have the final say on the design of the memorial to Flight 93. The right thing for the Park Service to do would be to take its time and think this through. If the memorial is purely a private matter, it can do whatever it wants. But if it is a public site and involves public money and an agency like the Park Service is involved, then the American people deserve to have a say in the decision of how the heroes of Flight 93 are memorialized.