Pulse Memorial Engagement Virtual Open House
Welcome to the virtual open house for public feedback on the Pulse Memorial.
The Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee, consisting of families, survivors and other community stakeholders, was recently created to guide engagement toward the recommendation of a conceptual design for a permanent memorial to the Orlando City Council by the end of this year.
Here, you will find a virtual replica of the questions posed to the public at the in-person Open House on Thursday, July 25, 2024.
Please choose any or all of the sections below to provide comments, feedback and share your stories. You do not need to list your name next to your comments. You can find more instructions about sharing ideas, commenting, upvoting suggestions you agree with and more, by clicking here.
Comments can be written in English or Spanish.
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Why is Schooler from Texas being paid $90K???? Another grifter. No connection whatsoever. Orlando already in failure mode from the getgo....nothing learned from the previous financial fiasco & loss of monies donated by individuals hard earned $. Orlando lack of response ... is an embarrassment
" open house" NOPE 8 families not allowed to participate.
If committee members do not understand that memorials are for the dead and not for the living, then please refer to this simple website on memorials and monuments created by the indisputable NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. On this government website, you will see memorials and monuments clearly defined and simplistic terms, with examples from around the United States:
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/monuments/index.htm
Memorials are NOT for events. War memorials are for the soldiers killed in action. Listed are the names of those killed. They may provide brief historical context, but the focus is always on those killed. Surviving soldiers with lost limbs, PTSD, and bullet wounds are never listed in these memorials. This is not to minimize their experience. It is simply not what memorials are for. Memory is in the word "memorial." The living (survivors) still have an opportunity to create their legacy and what they will be remembered for. Those killed do not. This memorial is an opportunity to create their memory/legacy, since they were STOLEN from the world and killed.
Memorials are also not for unsafe building riddled with code violations. They are not for nightclubs run by negligent and exploitative bar owners. They ARE for those killed. This is not an opinion open to interpretation. This is not a divisive game of semantics. The committee needs to focus the memorial on the 49 victims. It needs to be led by the families. It is for their murdered children, parents, and siblings.
This is not to say that survivors should be excluded and do not deserve their own monument. They do, and the City was given $50k from the onePULSE Foundation for the Survivor's Walk. Survivors should have that and be recognized, especially considering the FACT that law enforcement did not follow active shooter protocol, no law enforcement officers risked their lives to save victims (no first responders were killed), and the disgraceful 3-hour-long response led to increased injury, trauma, and death. Survivors should be there to support the wishes of the 49 families and fight for their own monument. The monument they were promised.
By not moderating and informing the committee of these basic facts.... the City is causing further division through this committee process. This is not perspective. This is fact.
It is also true that other locations of mass shootings got this wrong and did the same re-victimizing process that the City of Orlando is now replicating. Just because other places did their memorial one way and got it wrong, doesn't mean we have to replicate their mistakes. They are not examples of what to do. They are examples of what NOT TO DO.
Larry, during yesterday's committee meeting (July 25) you asked people to speak slowly for interpretation. However, you did not increase the amount of time public commenters had from the standard allotment of 3 minutes. This is unfair. If you want people to speak slowly and allow for proper interpretation and translation, you need to increase the time for public comment to 5-6 minutes.
The 8 families who applied should have never been rejected and should have a seat at the table so that they can LEAD the memorial process. These families don't just want to be heard. To suggest that they can participate is insulting. They want to LEAD the memorial for their own children and siblings. And they deserve a seat at the table. No one can speak for people who want to speak for themselves. If the City/Mayor do not want to add the 8 families onto the committee, then everyone should resign and this should be a grassroots project that the City supports led by all of the victims' families and survivors who want to be involved in the process. This includes the survivors who were ALSO rejected by the City. If the City can't handle that, let us handle it ourselves. We brought down the onePULSE Foundation and we can build a just and dignified public memorial, using an inclusive grassroots process that we know very well.
The process that the City has created, led by Larry Schooler, is harmful and re-victimizing. It is also ill-informed and incredibly insensitive. It has no place in Orlando. There is no path forward when the path forward, created by the City, excludes the families. As Christine Leinonen, mother of Christopher Andrew Leinonen said, without the murder of her son, "you would have no memorial." How dare the City continue with this process after hearing her anguish on the first day of the Memorial Committee.
Larry even plagiarized in order to lead these memorial committee meetings. He clearly has no idea what he's doing and is literally copying and pasting this process and leading the families/survivors who are on it down a road of division, turmoil, and pain. This is sad. It does not have to be this way. The City and Larry are not interested in improving the process in the best interest of victims, or they would have already done it with our EXTENSIVE emailed feedback and participation in these meetings (for the little 3-minute windows we have been allotted). This is so pathetic that the City is paying nearly $90k for this in taxpayer dollars:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/discussion-questions-for-pulse-memorial-committee-appear-to-be-lifted-from-lesson-plan-for-grade-school-children-37398053
They have created a process that is doing harm and causing division, in addition to not even being thoughtful, trauma-informed, or considerate of anything related to the lived experiences of the victims/survivors in ORLANDO.
In summary, this whole thing is a disgrace and the City should be ashamed for putting Pulse victims/survivors in this position.
No matter what memorial is built, if one is built, it will be built on a foundation of division and exclusion created by the City and Larry Schooler's infantilizing committee process.
We weren’t unable to enter and participate at the Open House…so it was not an open house it was quite closed doors.
Facilitator
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Consultant
