Thanatoast
Feb 3, 2004, 02:55 AM
Is it just me, or does it seem that the whole 9-11 memorial business has gotten...I dunno, a little out of hand?
I mean, here we have this huge plot of land in the middle of NY. We have thousands of teary eyed relatives/friends/acquaintances/saw it on tv/heard about it three days later people who insist that this place is "sacred ground" and that nothing must ever happen to it or change it.
We've got the city arguing over which design to use. Is this the third final design? Or the fourth? I can't remember. The consensus appears to be, whatever offends people the least, looks the neatest, and allows those determined to live in the past to vent their grief daily.
After Columbine, with the crosses and the atrium, and Oklahoma City, with the trees and chairs, and now this, I'm beginning to wonder whether having big memorials is such a great idea. I've heard stories about people in OKC saying they can't move past that day because they look out and see that giant field that just rips their heart out daily. I saw how much controversy the crosses and trees at Columbine HS caused b/c people couldn't handle the idea of "forgiveness".
Will this memorial at the WTC just make things worse, as opposed to better? We've already seen there's a huge rift b/t the western and eastern worlds. Do we need this shopping mall sized rememberance to remind us of why we should hate eachother?
More importantly, will we learn anything from this memorial? Or will people just use it to feel sorry for themselves? Is a memorial to racial and religious intolerance and the inequities of the world really what we want to build?
If anything, why not something small, tasteful. I went to the Vietnam Memorial (on 9-12, come to think of it) and I think it's awesome. I don't even know why. I do know that it is more appropriate than this extraveganza planned for NYC.
Sorry. Just ramblings.
I mean, here we have this huge plot of land in the middle of NY. We have thousands of teary eyed relatives/friends/acquaintances/saw it on tv/heard about it three days later people who insist that this place is "sacred ground" and that nothing must ever happen to it or change it.
We've got the city arguing over which design to use. Is this the third final design? Or the fourth? I can't remember. The consensus appears to be, whatever offends people the least, looks the neatest, and allows those determined to live in the past to vent their grief daily.
After Columbine, with the crosses and the atrium, and Oklahoma City, with the trees and chairs, and now this, I'm beginning to wonder whether having big memorials is such a great idea. I've heard stories about people in OKC saying they can't move past that day because they look out and see that giant field that just rips their heart out daily. I saw how much controversy the crosses and trees at Columbine HS caused b/c people couldn't handle the idea of "forgiveness".
Will this memorial at the WTC just make things worse, as opposed to better? We've already seen there's a huge rift b/t the western and eastern worlds. Do we need this shopping mall sized rememberance to remind us of why we should hate eachother?
More importantly, will we learn anything from this memorial? Or will people just use it to feel sorry for themselves? Is a memorial to racial and religious intolerance and the inequities of the world really what we want to build?
If anything, why not something small, tasteful. I went to the Vietnam Memorial (on 9-12, come to think of it) and I think it's awesome. I don't even know why. I do know that it is more appropriate than this extraveganza planned for NYC.
Sorry. Just ramblings.
