Sept. 11 Living Memorial

If American society is now threatened by a philosophy utterly alien to all we value as scientists, the nation can turn again to its immigrant roots for a great symbol of its endlessly renewable inspiration. The strength in melding together the traditions and talents of immigrants, each freely choosing to adhere to American ideals, with the skills of those born here is nowhere more evident than within American science. Albert Einstein--himself fleeing a terrible terror--is but its most visible face. America might now build further on this great tradition to create a living memorial to the victims of Sept. 11. The admission of 6,000 new citizens to this country, each to replace one of the victims, would be a powerful testament that terror has left the country not one citizen fewer. Each certificate of naturalization should be issued in memory of a named victim so that each new American life thus created will have forever in its family history a place for the one lost. And each victim's family would know that the memory of their loved one will live on with an individual place in this nation's history. Such a living memorial will, like science, transform and grow, often in unanticipated directions but always stronger and would transcend the value of a mere built memorial.