On the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year, President Barack Obama read a psalm at the former World Trade Center site during the annual memorial ceremony.
Former President George W. Bush, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also participated last year.
But this year, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum announced that elected officials would be barred from speaking, according to the New York Times.
The memorial “is focused on honoring the victims and their families in a way free of politics, and this ensures that continues,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president of the memorial and museum, in a statement released this summer.
Since elected officials such as then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani played such an important role in the aftermath of the attacks, should they be allowed to speak at the annual commemoration, or did the memorial group make the right choice?
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