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Tag: ground zero

  • The Market For Tragedy: 9/11 Museum Gift Shop

    Right now you can buy a $110 talking Osama Bin Laden action figure on eBay if your heart so desires. If you don’t want to waste your money, you have the option to download for free the Super Columbine Massacre RPG video game; the game “delves into the morning of April 20th, 1999 and asks players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.”

    Yet, with these options available, some feel capitalizing on a tragedy or a touchy subject isn’t proper. The 911 Memorial at Ground Zero in New York tells the story of the 9/11 terror attacks with artifacts and displays, paying tribute to the lives of innocents and heroes lost that day.

    They also have a gift shop.

    The 9/11 museum offers a wide selection of souvenirs that include, but are not limited to: FDNY, NYPD and Port Authority Police T-shirts ($22) and caps ($19.95); earrings molded from leaves and blossoms of downtown trees ($20 to $68); police and firefighter charms by Pandora and other jewelers ($65); “United We Stand” blankets – you can even buy an FDNY vest for your dog.

    Admission costs $24 for adults, $18 for seniors and students, and $15 for kids ages 7 to 17.

    “To me, it’s the crassest, most insensitive thing to have a commercial enterprise at the place where my son died.” Diane Horning told the New York Post; her husband Kurt and her never recovered the remains of their son Matthew, 26, a database administrator for Marsh & McLennan.

    Around 8,000 unidentified bodies lay buried in a “remains repository” in an underground home of the museum.

    “Here is essentially our tomb of the unknown. To sell baubles I find quite shocking and repugnant,” Horning added.

    “I think it’s a money-making venture to support inflated salaries, and they’re willing to do it over my son’s dead body.”

    A sign outside of the shop, as well as a notice online reads that “All net proceeds from our sales are dedicated to developing and sustaining” the museum. Despite the gift shop raising controversy, there are other multiple avenues of which one can donate, volunteer, or become a member and get a 10% discount.

    Among the donators, a plaque outside the store reads “made possible through the generosity of Paul Napoli and Marc Bern,” both partners in a law firm which garnered $200 million in taxpayer-funded fees and expenses after suing the city representing roughly 10,000 Ground Zero workers.

    According to the museum’s website, the firm donated $5 million.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, 911 Memorial

  • Ground Zero Victims Moved To 9/11 Museum

    The remains of 1,100 unidentified 9/11 victims were moved from the New York Medical Examiner’s office to a repository at Ground Zero on Saturday. Forensic experts had been working on identifying victims from the almost 8,000 bags of remains, however only 41% of the 2,753 victims have been identified and only 4 were positively identified from the remains in the last year.

    While the remains have been moved, officials say that this will not stop the efforts to identify the victims. “The repository provides a dignified and reverential setting for the remains to repose – temporarily or in perpetuity – as the work to identify the 9/11 victims continues,” said the medical examiner’s office in a statement. There are no current plans for testing the remains that have been moved, however as forensic technology develops, future identifications are hoped for.

    The decision to move the unidentified remains was made by former mayor Michael Bloomberg with the help of a consulting panel consisting of other city officials as well as families of 9/11 victims. The remains will not be on exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial Museum located at Ground Zero, but are placed adjacent to the memorial. Families will have access to a private room for reflection near the remains that is not open to the public.

    While a select few amongst the victims’ families were consulted regarding the move, there were those at the procession protesting the decision. “We were never given the opportunity to say that we did not want them in a museum,” said Rosaleen Tallon, sister of fallen firefighter Sean Tallon. “A museum is not a cemetery,” read another protestor’s sign. Sally Reganhard, vice president of a group of 9/11 victims’ families said, “We are outraged. There is anger and anguish. It’s an insult and a sacrilege. The city has refused to survey the families of the victims to get their opinion because they know the majority is against this plan.”

    The New York Medical Examiner’s office will continue to control access to the remains and the repository will be sealed off to museum visitors. The museum is set to open on May 21st, however a week before the official opening victims’ families, survivors, and rescue workers will have access to the memorial.

    Image via YouTube

  • World Trade Center Parkour Stunt Climber Caught

    World Trade Center Parkour Stunt Climber Caught

    Justin Casquejo is a daredevil. And he is not alone. Casquejo is part of a team of young folks who get their thrills from scaling heights, running obstacles, and collecting proof that they conquered things that most folks would be fearful of going near.

    Casquejo and his friends call themselves Team Destiny, and they are parkour aficionados. Parkour is a sport with its roots in European free-running, wherein participants adeptly and quickly traverse obstacle courses, usually simply the given terrain in an urban landscape such as buildings, walls, stair railings, windows, construction equipment, and other items that just happen to be there.

    Casquejo himself chose a lofty obstacle to conquer: One World Trade Center, the single building being constructed on the site of the former World Trade Center twin towers that were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001.

    According to the New York Post, the police say that Casquejo, who is only 16, observed the area for a while before devising his plan to get all the way to the top of the tower, climb the spire atop it, and snap pictures to prove he had been there.

    Casquejo first crawled through a hole in the fence surrounding the Ground Zero site. He then got a lift from a union elevator operator, perhaps by wearing a construction uniform, though he had no I.D., then sneaked past a sleeping guard. He then spent two hours on top of the building before being discovered by a construction worker and escorted down to face police.

    Fortunately, Casquejo was only interested in the fun and adventure of his parkour pastime, not someone intent on doing damage to property or harm to U.S. citizens. But the Port Authority, which is in charge of security at Ground Zero, is still quite chagrined that anyone was so easily able to slip past security. The sleeping guard has been fired, the union elevator operator has been reassigned, and the other lapses are being investigated.

    Image via Facebook