Today, the warmest January Sunday I’ve experienced in recent history, I went into New York City with my father, his girlfriend, and her 14-year old son. We drove to Jersey City and took the PATH in. When we arrived, her son met up with a friend he knew from summer camp. The rest of us walked down through the Villiage towards “Ground Zero.” My father had worked in the building across the street from the World Trade Center until Septemer 11.
When we got to the viewing station that was created mainly as a tourist attraction, the line was too long to bother with.
We walked back uptown through Chinatown stopping in a little restaurant for a late lunch.
I’m living in a location right now where it’s very simple to get into the city by train. I wonder if working in the city might be a better opportunity for me right now.
I hope that by “Tourist Attraction” you mean “built for use by out-of-towners”. While the lines are long, people aren’t drawn to ground zero out of a sense of seeing a “sight”, they’re drawn there out of a sense of pilgrimage. A feeling that they need to make real what the media, distance, and denial can all too easily, and all too quickly make unreal. I didn’t stand on the platform, but I went to ground zero. And I wish in some ways that I had to walk past it every day. Because it’s all too easy to forget, and there are far too many people that don’t have that choice.
Maybe “Tourist Attraction” was too hasrh of a phrase to use. They don’t sell the tickets… but there are enough tee shirt and postcard vendors in the area when there weren’t before. That area of New York used to be absolutely empty on a Sunday morning and now it is packed. I agree that many people are there to pay their respects, get closure, and make peace inside themselves.
Unfortunately, you’re right. There are a lot of people there simply to make a buck. That’s the sad reality of the situation. There’s money to be made off of the tragedy and suffering of others, and there are those who are willing to make that money.