Posted by: keegan (155 posts)
July 14, 2005 1:08 AM

I work down at the World Financial Center. I walk past Ground Zero on the way to the office. It's a pretty antiseptic desolate stretch of concrete on the south side of the pit.

Each day throngs of tourists pour through there taking their pictures in front of...nothing. I understand why they come to see it. But they come and walk through this corridor desperate for some scratch of tribute, some artifact of sympathy. There's almost nothing there. A few keychain lanyards, a few old photos duct taped to the wall, and scattered about...some crappy high school poetry. And this is what the tourists deem picture worthy.

To be clear, I am not poking fun at the grieving teen who may write said poetry. I am just commenting on the absurdity of taking a picture of it. The good news is that the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation just announced plans to open a "Tribute Visitor's Center" next to the firehouse on Liberty Street. I think this will go a long way in giving these people something worth seeing.