We will travel to New York City later this year and if possible we will visit the site of the World Trade Towers which is now a memorial. Two pools and inscribed names honour those who lost their lives as a result of the cowardly attacks by terrorists on the innocent and unsuspecting workers and visitors to the towers in 2001.
Our timing is off because next Spring the National September 11th Memorial Museum will open. This museum was featured on the television program Sixty Minutes on Sunday evening and it was evident that it will be a solemn and even sacred space. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50154585n The family members who serve on the advisory committee see it as sacred and I understand why. It is effectively the gravesite for loved ones whose lives were snuffed out in the cause of hatred and this is an opportunity to remember them with dignity. It will be far beneath the ground. I wonder if there will be prayers when it is opened?
There are questions over which the curator and committee have agonized. Do they acknowledge the perpetrators of this calamity, including Osama Bin Laden? Do they include photos of people jumping from the towers to their deaths? What information about those who died should be shared, and who decides? It appears that this will be fitting memorial of events we would like to forget but shouldn't forget. Let's hope it can be a place of healing and let's pray for those who were so deeply affected on what we have come to call 911.
Would you visit a museum such as this one? What are your thoughts about 911 more than a decade later?
3 comments:
I don't think the perpetrators should be acknowledged - let's make it about the victims, without giving all the horrible details.
As I drove to work this morning, a radio station gave a tribute to 911by replaying footage of that terrible day. I felt they went too far, however, when bystanders were talking about people jumping to their deaths, mangled bodies, etc. This tribute had background music that just didn't seem to fit, and I felt the whole thing seemed a little tasteless.
Let's remember the victims and their families, but we don't need to hear yet again the gory details.
It is certainly an event we should never forget - it is a huge, palpable demonstration of hatred and intolerance, and the victims ought to be remembered with dignity - in a way that the survivors/family members find fitting and tasteful. I hope there will be prayer - by members, officials of all faiths - for peace at the opening.
working in the emergency services field sept 11 is a special day
we remeber all those who died and especially the 343 firefighter who ran into a burning building and didnt come out I lost a friend in that building a colleague who did critical incident stress debriefing with me. All these years later i remeber that time and take stock if not for a moment
the tribute should name all those who perished - maybe a small footnote for the evildoers just to mark there place in history
As a Christian and a Buddist we much strive to balance the universe
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