My Impressions of Ground Zero

IX XI is 9/11 in Roman numerals. I'd never realized that before I saw it on the background of the memorial.

Rebecca worked in midtown when it happened and this was her first visit to Ground Zero, I am truly honored that she chose to share it with me. We took the subway in from NJ and as a result, rode right into the Pit. We saw more from the train and on the platform than we did on street level. It was really weird to be where I'd had dinner almost 25 years ago (at Windows on the World) and there was nothing there. I don't remember a lot about dinner that night in 1982 but I remember The Buildings - the Twin Towers were a big deal.

To know that thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives at the site was very solemn, very sobering. As we read the timeline, Rebecca shared a little. She is one of the very few people who only knows survivors - people who made it out or by their circumstances didn't make it into the buildings at all. She said it was very strange to pull into the train station and see cars that no one ever came for. She told a story of woman who lost her husband; the widow sold her house and the family that bought it doesn't really "fit" into the neighborhood because everyone knows who used to live there. That house will have to flip again before the neighborhood will be able to accept the family that lives there - but then I wonder, will everyone in the neighborhood ever really accept the family that lives in that house? I remembered being on the phone with Mark as he was trying to get back to Evan's school to pick him up and then I suddenly realized, what if my talking to Mark kept someone from being able to say goodbye to their family? I hope not.

As we walked along reading the timeline and memorial, we saw couples hand their camera to someone and they posed in front of the fence, arms around one another, smiling. How in the world could someone see Ground Zero as a tourist attraction in the cheesey connotation of that phrase. A tourist destination, yes (after all, I was a tourist and I wanted to be there) but it certainly isn't something like the Statue of Liberty or Rockefeller Center or the Empire State building where you smile for the camera. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures at all - all I could think was "people DIED here" and so my camera stayed in the bag. Many people were taking photos of the site and the memorial, and I don't have a problem with that - but acting as if this were just any other sight-to-see in the city? Highly inappropriate, in my opinion.

And then there were the "vendors" - I use that term loosely - men selling little postcard-size books of photos. What?! People DIED here, folks. Please don't let these men profit from that! But, I saw people buy them. There is a sign hanging on the 'fence' that specifically asks people not to buy from vendors but rather to keep the ground sacred. A man stood directly below it, selling things. All you can do is shake your head.

Then we went to St. Paul's Chapel. It is directly across the street from the World Trade Center and was not damaged at all on 9/11. They have an exhibit set up in the church showing how it was used as a relief center for the rescue workers. As we walked into the church, we went to the left and walked along that side many of the things I saw and read were very moving - but as we finished that part of the exhibit, we were "herded" through a gift shop section before we could continue down the other side of the church to see the rest of the exhibit. Now, I realize they need to pay for the upkeep of the chapel and the utilities to have millions of people walking through there; however, add a few more collection boxes - but please don't try to sell me a book or a cross. I don't need a souvenir! And if you feel like you need to sell something, then set up a bookstore offsite, please. Don't sell to me in the church. I immediately thought of Jesus running the money changers out of the temple (Matthew 21:12-13, among other passages -- go to BibleGateway.com and search on "money changers"). Maybe a different context, but still - we're there to see the sacred, don't make a mockery of that by trying to make a buck. I was so disturbed by that, I couldn't even concentrate on the other half of the exhibit. It really, really bothered me.

And so, there are my impressions - the sacred and, some would say 'capitalist' I say 'opportunist' in a very weird juxtaposition that is wrong on so many levels. But beyond that, a truly surreal site in the landscape of Manhattan; a wound that is trying to heal.