9/11 Museum Opens to Public Next Week

Still have to pay the bills.

 

Have to think that they could have found plenty of companies willing
to underwrite without having to resort to selling t shirts and key rings
to make ends meet.

 

Just visited the Pentagon last week. They have a very nice chapel at crash site and a very nice memorial set up outside where the plane hit before striking the building.

There is Pentagon gift shop, but no separate one for the crash site.
I think they had some 9-11 items for sale in the gift shop, but I'm not sure. I didn't really pay attention to what was in the gift shop.

 

There was a gift shop at Auschwitz, but it only sells books and videos (no T-shirts, thank goodness), although there is a snack kiosk. Would feel kind of weird to eat a Snickers bar at a place where a million people died, so I passed. Auschwitz had more of a museum feel than a funereal one.

Birkenau (it's a two-fer since both camps are adjacent to each other) was much more somber.

 

Selling trinkets sounds a little callous, but if you can't enjoy a frothy cappuccino while paying your respects to the fallen, then the terrorists have won.

 

If I ever do visit the Museum, I'll feel better knowing that if I become overcome with emotion, I can sit down to a delicious double espresso to steady my nerves.

That's peace of mind, and it's a public service.

 

I'm not seeing the big deal.

You can't go 5 seconds in the NYC area without seeing someone wearing a t-shirt, hat or driving a car with some sort of decal commemorating the tragedy or in some way honoring the first responders. I assume that they weren't handmade or weren't sold for cost. Mrs. W and I collect magnets from places where we have visited and I have one from the Holocaust Museum. I think that I'm honoring the idea of the memorial and don't believe that (or this) is crass or disrespectful.

 

"They raised millions and millions of dollars, which of course was enormously helpful, and the Mets and Yankees donated a great deal to the Twin Towers Fund, the police department and the fire department," Giuliani said. "But the best thing they did was give their time and spend time with the families.


 "It just lifted their spirits and made them feel that the person they lost was so important that Derek Jeter or Mike Piazza or Paul O'Neill would spend time with them."

From Sept. 21, 2001:

 

My Parents Went to Auschwitz


And I All Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt!