New Yorkers...This morning on the train I saw two huge groups?

Question

of people on their way down to the WTC site.
I sat there getting angry because I went thru it & I felt like people were coming to make it a side show. To gawk, and stare.
Anyone else feel like this?

I do know it's an important part of history. I just really hate the tour buses and people selling replicas of the towers. It seems to me to tarnish the importance of it.

Answer 1

I totally understand how you feel. I was living in the northern suburbs of NYC on 9/11, I was a newspaper reporter at a suburban paper, I saw the horrible column of ash from the collapse, I spent the next days and weeks and months interviewing survivors, and bereaved people, and covering funerals. (Our county which had lots of commuters and lots of firefighters lost dozens of people.) Then I moved out of state (first California, then Texas) and 9/11 is just not REAL to some of the folks out of state who were not there. They do try to make it into a side show. There was one person I can remember especially from California who said it was her "favorite holiday" which really, totally bugged me -- she was this woman who used it as an excuse for her prejudices against people from the Middle East -- I felt like telling her that the 3,000 people who died, did not die to be an excuse for her hate. They did not die for any reason except that crazy zealots murdered them senselessly. They did not die to be poster children for anybody's political agenda. Also in California I knew this other person who had an embroidery business and was selling embroidered knickknacks of firefighters for like the 2nd anniversary, can you IMAGINE!?! -- And it really bothers me when people have these other crazy conspiracy theories, you know, the crazy theories about how there supposedly "really wasn't" a plane that hit the Pentagon, etc.... It really, really bothers me.
On the other hand, if you get too obsessed over people and their dumb lack of comprehension, if it upsets you enough to actually interfere with your life, it's kind of like you are having a mild PTSD symptom or something...You live in New York so you have tons of affordable mental health resources available to you, compared to the rest of the country, and you might want to consider accessing said resources if you're having what seems like a kind of mild PTSD reaction. you can e-mail me offlist for a recommendation if you want.

Answer 2

Very, very well said, Lingua. We all grieve in different ways. I did what I could to help and raise money for the survivors right afterwards and now I never look at that ugly hole in the ground. I don't understand the tour buses that take thousands of people to see this, but they must feel something standing there that I don't.

A few days after September 11, I was in Chinatown (the area at the World Trade Center was closed off to the public for a long time). There were some very badly damaged cars parked (one was a police car) they were crushed and covered in rubble - there were memorial candles and flowers on the cars - they must have been moved there because there was no damage done on that part of Lafayette Street. There were people who were taking pieces of the cars, packing the rocks, cement fragments, glass, ashes, the dirt, etc into huge bags. They intended to sell this as souvenirs !?##! (translate that into the strongest curse you know)

Answer 3

I could only agree with you in one respect. The vendors that try and profit off of the site in a disrespectful manner should be banned. The are like the money lenders that Jesus chased from the temple. I wouldn't want to walk into a church or temple and see a bank of America or smith barney kiosk. Tourists that don't behave in a respectful manner should be banned too. One should show respect to the dead.

However, the whole world grieved when the twin towers went down. The bombing of the twin towers is a very historic event and we can't blame people for wanting to understand the past. People mourn the passing of others at cemeteries, the beaches in Normandy, old battle grounds or even a makeshift stand on a corner where someone died in a car accident. People need a place to pay their respect, they need to see where things happened and they need closure.

Answer 4

no longer some prepare injury no, however the 1st music that popped in my head exchange into Aerosmith--prepare stored A Rollin'... BA: no longer something that loopy..i've got had gang shootings interior the apt. homes at the back of me as quickly as, A homicide on the subsequent block as a toddler growing to be up and observed a vehicle chase come to a screeching holt in front of me w/a lot of law enforcement officers and weapons drawin' and the human beings jumpin' out and runnin' that exchange into possibly the scariest incident i've got seen up front and stay.

Answer 5

It is weird to me that its a tourist attraction but I think that people probably want to visit it b/c even though they were not in NY, it affected all of the US and they probably want to physically pay their respects and see in person what they saw on TV for months.

Answer 6

theres more people that visit pearl harbor.....though i do feel for you being that you had to live through it, but get used to it...its a very important piece of american and world history

Answer 7

i havn;t gone thrugh such a case but if i wuld be there at ur position thn i wuld hav thught the same

Answer 8

It's better for folks to see the tragedy than forget about it.

Answer 9

WTF''