In the debate over what to do with 9-11 memorial items on the St. Paul's fence, everyone agreed a good fence made for good neighbors. The disagreement was over what made a good fence.

After careful consideration, the Parish of Trinity Church will dismantle the longest-lasting and largest spontaneous memorial to 9-11 victims - a grassroots collage of signed t-shirts, banners, posters, baseball caps, and teddy bears strung on the iron fence of St. Paul's Chapel.

The decision followed a public debate initiated by downtown residents who complained that the memorial had become an eyesore that encouraged time to stand still in mourning.

The rector of Trinity and St. Paul's, the Rev. Dr. Daniel P. Matthews, told a New York Times journalist that the parish would proceed with the removal while honoring the dignity of those who had expressed their grief by placing items on the fence.

The parish plans to clear a new section of the fence every week, and to complete the process next January. Items are being safely archived and will be available to institutions for future display.

What follows is a sample of the opinions the parish considered. While reflecting the debate, it also puts the churchyard fence in the context of nationhood, grief, and old-fashioned neighborliness. –Eds.

If leaving objects of love in front of the Church gives the person leaving them some peace or a closure to pain, then it is important for this to be allowed. What harm does it do?
—Judy Young
Waterloo, NY

We already have a 16-acre reminder of the events of September 11th and need to move on. Another thought is to have a reduced version of this Memorial placed somewhere inside your building—space permitting, of course.
—Laura Blanco
New York, NY

The spontaneous memorial should be photographed and the photo placed in an appropriate place, available to the public with poetry and essays to accompany it and a service of dedication.
—Nancy Schweers
San Antonio, TX

I volunteered at St. Paul’s for 6 months. I stood outside and handed pens to people to write on the banners and I screened visitors. Hundreds of people from dozens of countries told me the same thing in different words: “Thank God this place is here.” There are dozens of volunteer organizations searching for something to do. These organizations, I suspect, could provide you with the help necessary to maintain this important site for as long as the community (local, national, and international) demonstrates the need for a place to come. Messages of every type were written on those banners. The one word that invariably appeared was “God.”
— Stephen E. Clark
New York, NY

I think it is time to archive all the memorabilia. A year has passed and now it’s time for us to continue living.
—Alan Smeal
New York, NY

The time to heal and move on has been here for a while. Perhaps a simple monument (statue and plaque) and a guest book would be more appropriate now. —Lorraine Rolston New York, NY

When I write a letter of condolence, send flowers, or speak with one who has suffered deep loss, I hope my act will be of comfort and may be remembered, but I do not feel that the paper need be preserved or my talk taped. I would remove the offerings.
—George Reath
Flourtown, Pennsylvania

Flowers, messages, and flags fade in the weather, and make the environs of the WTC even more depressing. I think we need to move ahead now and urge our beloved mourners to do so as well. I may be wrong, though; I am not a psychologist.
—Sue Lane Talley
New York, NY

The tattered flags and signs must stay, at least through the holiday season. So many loved ones and tourists are going to revisit the Chapel, but in order to move forward they need some recollection of how it was a year ago.
Helen MacCallum
Greenwich, Connecticut

When the people who live, work, and worship in the vicinity of St. Paul’s feel the time of mourning is over, the items should be removed from the fence. It is important for the people in Lower Manhattan to feel a renewal to their lives and not have a constant reminder of the tragedy they faced.
Frances Wittmer Rodier
Nashua, NH

Memorials serve a valuable purpose as a place for healing, for grieving, and for expressing thoughts that may have no other way to be articulated. At least until there is a permanent memorial, we urge St. Paul’s to maintain the fence site as a national shrine.
—Katherine Jeter
Spartanburg, SC

What about putting up a sign that items are taken down daily/weekly and are being archived? That would give people the comfort of knowing that their and others’ memorial items were of value to you and to the nation and still give you the beauty of the clear and clean view of the Chapel.
—Helen Betenbaugh,
Wichita, KS

Spontaneity is precisely that. Let it go. To “freeze” it would be gross sentimentality.
— Hugh Valentine
London, UK

I support removing artifacts hanging from St. Paul’s fence. It was a source of comfort to many initially after the disaster but it is time to move on. The fence has become a mawkish eyesore and is hardly an appropriate memorial. Please listen to the voices of New Yorkers who live and work downtown who in general prefer to have it cleaned up. Hopefully those who disagree with a clean fence will understand over time that St. Paul’s Chapel and grounds can provide a venue for reflection and meditation and that the dirty T-shirts on the fence are not necessary.
—Sulian Tay
New York, NY

It means so much to see how people have poured out their hearts and emotions about 9-11. This is where people come to be a part of that horrible day — a part of saying how sorry they are about the families and their tragic losses. Please do not take the wall down, at least not yet. Much of America is not ready or prepared for it to come down.
—M. Plein
Nevada As a regular volunteer at St. Paul’s Chapel, I wanted to voice my opinion on the controversy regarding the fence surrounding St. Paul’s and adjacent to Ground Zero.

Trinity and St. Paul’s Chapel have a unique opportunity and responsibility to the world at large, to grieve and offer respect to those who passed on. The work at St. Paul’s was much bigger than just the relief effort: it was a symbol of what is possible in humanity; that people give more of themselves than what is usually expected or required in life. Living out Christ’s word to put it succinctly.

The fence is a place for people to come and to reflect our loss. The fence can be monitored so that weather-torn items are removed on a weekly basis. The fence can look neat; a volunteer or docent from St. Paul’s can monitor it.

The items that are removed can be saved or destroyed. Nothing in our world is forever and it is not meant to be. The fence can be a beautiful representation of mourners rather than an eyesore.
—Lila Meade
Poughkeepsie, NY