No 'Satellite' Memorial to Station Fire

This weekend, Jody King announced the plans for a "satellite" Memorial for the Station Nightclub fire victims. This idea flies in the face of all that is proper and just.

We don’t need another satellite memorial, we already have one hundred of them — we call them grave sites. Attempting to move the focus of this tragedy to a different location is a giant step away from what has now become the most important and only remaining goal of the Station fire victim’s families.  

[Past Coverage: Loved Ones Observe Ninth Station Fire Memorial Service]

This goal is to have a legitimate and permanent reminder of what happens when fire inspectors, elected officials and judicial appointees, engulfed in corruption and incompetence, choose to turn their backs on the rights and safety of our citizens.

Instead of even thinking about a satellite memorial, all Rhode Island citizens should be working with the Station Fire Memorial Foundation to acquire the Cowesett Avenue site from the current owner, who has displayed nothing but selfishness, ignorance and stone-hearted disregard of these families.

Therefore, I am calling for the State of Rhode Island to act in the public good by taking the land at the site of the Station Nightclub Fire by eminent domain. This action would, once and for all, deliver the only legitimate Station Fire Memorial to the hands of those who not only deserve it but have already paid for it with the lives of their loved ones.

Dave Kane

Johnston, RI

Editor's Note: The name of the family member seeking a satellite memorial has been corrected.