MT’s Observations

MT writes:

• 9/11 Memorial and Museum
• As I walk in and pick a spot to sit at, I notice that the memorial is surrounded by many people. There are tourists everywhere, taking pictures. They are in groups and here as individuals. I also noticed that in the background, a slow song was playing [like the ones in the sad movies that made you cry], it was being played by a homeless man who [of course had a hat out in front of him for money] sat down with nothing but his flute and a coat to keep him warm. Although this music seemed to be soothing to the ear and mind nobody seemed to pay any mind to it or the man playing the music, they just kept on looking around the museum taking their pictures.
• As I am sitting by a pole I notice an old lady, perhaps in her 60s. She is wearing a sweater that resembles the American flag: it has the red and white stripes and the stars to complete it. She is wearing light blue jeans, thick grey glasses and a black purse. Her hands never left her pant’s pockets. She slowly moved along the perimeter of the memorial, carefully gazing at all of the pictures. As she walked around the memorial she kept looking up and around the area. She was accompanied by a younger woman (maybe in her 30s) wearing a grey headband/earmuffs. She was dressed in all black, a black jacket and black jeans. She was holding a Century 21 bag [from her afternoon of shopping I guess]. Together they peacefully walked around the memorial stopping only to answer a phone call. As they finished up they slowly moved towards the corner of the street and made their exit from the site.
• Groups of all ages and sizes crowded the memorial. Speaking what seemed to be hundreds of different languages [Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, and English, among many others] with all sorts of accents as well.
• As the crowd grew larger I could observe a small group of four men [who seemed to me to be from Argentina] walking up to the memorial. All four men were wearing black sweaters and dark sunglasses. Two of them had on backpacks so it seemed as if this was a planned visit because they pulled items out of those bags [such as cameras, a map among other things]. As they stood there gazing at the pictures four women joined them and they began to converse. It seems as if they know each other, maybe they were together. They slowly walked away and reappeared on the other side of the memorial. They continued to walk rather fast around the memorial which made it seem as if it were only a short visit and not so much a planned full day event. However they stayed a while longer carefully admiring one particular side of the memorial. Four of the group members began to smoke [three men and one woman] and then huddled together [probably due to the cold weather]. They soon began to walk away from where I could see and then were lost in the crowd.
• As the time went on less and less people remained at the memorial.
• The more typical thing to do was take pictures. Many people who stopped by would bring their camera and just point and shoot until they either ran out of space on their digital cameras or until they decided it was enough for this visit, it wasn’t quite clear.
• People also tried to look at what was going on inside what seemed to be an impenetrable gate that safeguarded all the workers and new project being built. The gates were made out of steel followed by wooden barricades which seemed to just outline a weaker fence on the inside. However, police offices would circle the area and make sure nothing was out of order. If that wasn’t enough, there were guards on the inside of the work zone as well as workers who would not allow anyone in without proper identification.
• As I was getting up to stretch my legs out, six girls arrived [who were very well dressed and who also had on a substantial amount of make-up]. It seemed as if they were going to a formal dance/dinner after their quick visit or were taking a break from one, one girl kept asking another, “What time do we have to be back?” which probably meant that they need to be somewhere son and this is only a quick visit to help the time pass by. As I had suspected their visit was brief and they went on with their day exiting the memorial area.
• At around 4:57pm the crowd seemed to grow larger and more and more pictures were being snapped.
• Throughout the entire time I sat down by a pole, people would come up to me and just stand right in front of me looking dazed up at something behind me. At the moment I was preoccupied looking around trying to notice everything as well as simultaneously trying to take notes, but then I looked up behind me and noticed that behind me was a big display of all of the names of the firefighters would died in the tragic event. However, I also noticed that on the top of the sign it read: “Heroes” which caught my attention because they were automatically assumed to be heroes. Such emphasis on the firefighters seemed to catch my attention on a different level than the event itself.
• Also what seemed to catch my attention was that before coming on to the site, there were street vendors selling merchandise that dealt with the 9/11 attacks. It was weird to me that this was being allowed, this having been a tragic event [one with a great deal of significance in the United States history]. Then as I walked onto the site, there were signs that told the public to only purchase “authorized items” which seemed unreal to me. Why would the government want to make money off of such a tragic thing?