alrot wrote on Sep 11
th, 2011 at 10:47am:
by watching the memorials at the Ground Zero..the performance of Paul Simon "The Sounds of Silence" Wow !!! indescribable and at the same time really sad
I know there is a new tower in construction , in one of what I presume to be where one of the towers was ,there is a beautiful and huge fount that drags water falling in the four walls down ,really beautiful ,did they put it to work just for today ?
Yeah, they let in a small group (victims' family, etc, I believe) already... and soon it will be open to the flood of tourists, who will no doubt have to go through the gift shop on their way to see the pools.
They're estimating a million visitors a year... should generate lots of revenue for the Port Authority of NY&NJ. Good thing, too, as the complex is already $2 billion over budget, and the 11 (!) administrators of the memorial museum will be getting a combined salary of $2 million/year.
If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am... I've been watching tourists smiling for pictures there for ten years now, starting with the time when it was still smoking... and I don't think the site is going to get more dignified in the future.
But maybe the pools, which occupy the actual footprints of the two towers, and are surrounded with the names of the victims and fallen first responders, will be a sanctuary for reflection and mourning... it's a nice gesture, at any rate.
If anyone wants to visit the memorial, do me a favor, for the people I knew who died there, and all the others:
Don't smile for your photo! It's not Disney World, it's a mass grave.
Pages: 
