Posted on 05/21/2014 1:16:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The tension surrounding the National September 11 Memorial Museum's position as both a grave site and a moneymaking tourist attraction continued on Wednesday, when it finally opened to the general public. Both the New York Post and the New York Daily News spoke to first-responders and relatives of 9/11 victims who were upset to learn that the museum was the site of a cocktail party attended by Michael Bloomberg and other donors on Tuesday night. Tuesday was the last day for people who were directly affected by the attacks on the Twin Towers to visit the space for free, and some were reportedly turned away from the door as the 60-person, black-tie get-together and preparations for opening day began. The Daily News reports that a group of firefighters who were asked to leave early walked out "in tears."
"To have a festive occasion on human remains, it's repulsive, it's repugnant," said John Feal, who volunteered at ground zero and advocates for 9/11 first-responders. Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the towers, said that the party was "a prime example" of why the unidentified remains stored in a private repository "must be removed immediately from this building — from this site of commercialism, parties, drinking, catering." Meanwhile, an anonymous museum employee told the Daily News, "I don't think alcohol should be allowed in there. It's a sacred ground and [the partygoers] desecrated it."
Museum spokesman Michael Frazier responded to the complaints, saying, "The days-long preview included 24-hour operations over that period. We had to close the museum to prepare the space for our historic public opening [Wednesday]. While closed for these preparations, there was a very small and short gathering for donors. Those donors include Conde Nast, which is sponsoring [Wednesday's] free admission. The small gathering was done respectfully and in recognition of our supporters, who helped to build this important institution." Still, it seems that it would be best for everyone if Tuesday's event were the last party the museum had for quite a while.
Those people should be ashamed of themselves
What is the crime of the century? The cocktail party or the destruction of the Trade Centers?
Sorry; Americans should not hold drinking parties in mausoleums of any type. Just no.
Well, Arizona, maybe you don’t feel much about all that burning flesh I smelled on that day. I remember it very clearly, closing all the windows and checking to see if a friend or colleague had been incinerated. Oops! Yes, they had!
We probably shouldn’t, but we’re a tacky people. And we like to blur lines. It’s not really a mausoleum, even though it has remains it’s considered a museum, and like most American museums that means a gift shop (with some really tacky crap). It’s pretty standard for a donation funded museum to open with a cocktail party for the big donors, it’s a standard thing. Meet and greats, and photo-ops, and proving you care while hobnobbing with the elite are major reasons why big donors are big donors. The recognition tends to be a lot more important than the cause.
Well I do know some. I can’t help it though, being a close relative. Some are more afflicted than others, of course. I could tell you things that would make your hair curl. But I can’t do anything, because they won’t listen. Now I just try to avoid politics unless they bring it up first.
Just because I disagree with liberals doesn’t mean I have to act like one.
The thought has crossed my mind, though...
Who said anything about not feeling much about it? I’m simply pointing to basic realities of the situation, it’s an event that was 13 years ago, that’s put a lot of distance between us and then, entertainment that came out that year is old, ground breaking TV shows have had their entire run in that time. Meanwhile, it’s America, we have certain things we do in America, some of which don’t really fit properly with the situation but we do it anyway. Like it or not the 9/11 Museum is a donation collecting organism, and donations collecting museums always have a high brow cocktail party for the big donors as part of the opening ceremony. And yeah that’s a little gauche in this case, but that’s the path they went down when they started collecting money from the movers and shakers of NYC, they don’t write big checks for fun, or even for belief, they do it for photo-ops that show how much they care. The only way we were ever going to avoid this was to not have a museum in the first place, of course then people would be complaining that we aren’t recognizing an important event.
The twin towers should have been rebuilt. That would have taken care of everything. Thirteen years may be a lot of time to you but not to me. For years, I had to drive in past that mess, past the Islamic center trying to gain a foothold on sacred ground and still trying to mosey their way in. Geert Wilders has shown more sensitivity to this event than Americans spread across the fruited land.
The “high brow” cocktail party could have been held at the Temple of Dendor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art or MOMA - no need to hold it near Ground Zero. Manhattan is loaded with gorgeous places to hold a cocktail party to raise funds to keep this museum going. Watching young girls sloshing back cocktails close to where young secretaries and janitors died for no good reason disgusts me.
Never
Not ever
It is a cemetery
Even we Irish who love a memorial can wait to get to the shore club or the Blarney Stone before cracking open a beer and telling a joke
Maybe, but that’s not the path we took. 13 years is a long time period, 3 full presidential terms and change. And it wasn’t Americans spread across the fruited land that planned this party, it was your own New Yorkers.
Couldn’t have held the party somewhere else, part of the point of the party is being “shown” where your donations went. When you build the museum with donations you hold the party AT the museum built, that’s how it’s done. And yeah, that standard is a bit crass here, but again, it’s America, we’re crass a lot.
Arizona, I don’t think you have too much empathy for the people that died that day. Just my intuition. You suspect they were all libs, don’t you?
Of course, the cocktail parties could have been held somewhere else. I suspect, given the backlash, they wished they had been held somewhere else.
And as far as crass? Speak for yourself.
I have lots of empathy. I also have lots of realism. I don’t suspect they were anything other than people who went to work that day only to find the world go horrible. I’m not into labeling and name calling, unlike yourself.
No it couldn’t. The point of that donor party is to show them the museum they paid for. If you have it elsewhere the entire function just lost its purpose. They probably had fund raising parties at other places before and during the build, the grand opening party is AT the museum. They don’t care about the backlash, this too shall pass. Two weeks from now you’ll be lucky if anybody remembers there was a party.
Speaking for reality. America does crass real good, this party is another shining example. As individuals we tend to be nice, in groups, especially when there’s money involved, not so much.
NO. Why doesn’t bloomBERG have it in Aushwitz.
Dude it’s like thirteen years ago, “ground breaking TV shows have had their entire run in that time. Meanwhile, it’s America, we have certain things we do in America”. TV show running times are a great standard to judge historical and national significance. One of the things we used to do was honor our dead particularly our war dead. You either believe these people died in an attack on America and Western Civilization or you don’t. If you don’t it’s a great place for a party. The fact that the last of the unidentified human remains from 9/11 were moved there recently also should have somehow played into the decision. 7 World Trade Center is up and running and hosting parties on a regular basis as it should. That should have been where the reception was held. The museum has to fundraise but not at the expense of the honored dead. Never Forget
Your America may do crass but my America still has class. This insistence that the only place to have a fundraiser is directly over the remains of the dead is just foolish. It just shows you know very little about New York City. It is a city of so many venues that your head would explode just thinking about all of them. The organizers lacked true common sense and dignity - just as they lacked humility in selling earrings at a 9/11 museum! What next? Human bone earrings at the Anne Frank memorial?
I hope these guys learned their lesson with this blow back and the next fundraiser will take someplace else. I have no problem with World Trade Center 1 - a genuine place of business that undoubtedly has ballrooms/restaurants designed for that purpose.
what next, a Memorial Day cocktail party for democrat donors at Arlington cemetery?
Great views... they could set up a dance floor
And as the Clintons decided, military dress uniforms make great cocktail servers
it’s hallowed ground if the ashes of someone you loved or someone who gave his life in service to others has their remains embedded in the soil
remember how many people simply were incinerated and disappeared at that site. Drink!
No your America does crass. Your America puts a gift shop in a museum that has human remains, and then has a cocktail party in it. Sorry to open your eyes to something you’ve apparently been ignoring for a long time, but that is the real, crass America that we’re both in. We might not participate, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real and part of our baggage as Americans.
Not the fundraiser, fundraisers were in other places. This was the “thank you” party, and the “thank you” party happens in the building their money built. That’s the standard. And yeah, they probably should have realized this was a good time to break away from the standard. But we’re crass Americans, that wasn’t going to happen.
If we built an Anne Frank memorial in America it would definitely sell earrings. Probably not with human bones though, there’s a limited audience for stuff that weird.
The only lesson they need to know is that this will blow over in a week or two.
By your logic half of Europe is hallowed ground. Millions were incinerated on thousands of battlefields and cities during WWI and WWII.
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