"In This Time, Especially Post 9-11, Blah blah..."

[sharky]

The sad thing about the Ground Zero 2002 t-shirts is that they had Ground Zero 2001 shirts being sold on the street corners in Lower Manhattan in September.

You won't understand what happened that day unless you were here and some so-called "Americans" need to deal with that, accept that and don't try and act like they have somehow been as deeply affected as those of us who were down there that day. They should consider themselves lucky they didn't have to be there. And its only going to get worse leading up to the one year anniversary which is going to make me even sicker to my stomach.

As for the whole FDNY, NYPD, PAPD etc. thing, several things

1) they weren't the only ones. There were construction workers and iron workers that started volunteering at 10:30am on Sept. 11, worked 24 hours a day rain or shine and cleaned up that pit ahead of schedule and under budget. And remember the EMS guys who also lost co-workers who were trying to help the injured. Just because the EMS workers don't have a special letter thing that looks good on a t-shirt doesn't mean they didn't lose people.

2) If I see a firefighter in NYC I walk by them with my head down. I still can't look those guys in the eye. How can you look someone in the eye that is willing to put their life on the line any day for you-- and that you never noticed until after 9/11? Respect them for the fact that they are firefighters, not that their friends are dead.

Oh and last week I was walking around the city with my fly unzipped and someone was nice enough to let me know. We're still down and dirty New Yorkers but we're better than we were.

Sorry for the rant, I tend to go off about stuff like this. It just is too persoanl for me I guess.

 

[Stories for Boys]

i think it's pitiful......i mean, it's dispicable to say the least......how could ppl be so heartless......only recently has this whole 9/11 thing hit close to home, and now it bugs me even more......and i don't think it's helping us americans any by being so obnoxious.....just shows how incredibly commercialized our lives in america are.........

 

[DethVeggy]

Are you saying that no one has the right to be a little tired of the endless tributes, references, etc?

At what point do we begin to move on and not turn it into the typical American pop culture event? I guess I am not sure at what you're trying to say in your post, Sharky.

Of course I'll never know what it was like to have BEEN in lower Manhatten that day, but I do know what it was like wondering if my cousin was in the financial district (he's a broker) or if my grandmother's plane over Virgina was in danger. I was terrified. And in the weeks after the attack, I was mournful and very conscious of the lessons to be learned about our nation and how we are to our fellow people. As time moves I think the marketing of the tragedy is insulting to the memory of everyone that was there.

Having said that, if you were the person who voted no, I can't agree with you. I respect what you're saying, but cannot agree with it. Some nations live under attack every day and T-Shirts are not made. I consider myself very proud to live in America and I still think we're a nation of suckers the way we turn everything into a pop culture event. But that's just my opinion.

 

[sharky]

Are you saying that no one has the right to be a little tired of the endless tributes, references, etc?

At what point do we begin to move on and not turn it into the typical American pop culture event? I guess I am not sure at what you're trying to say in your post, Sharky.

Vegg-- I'm confused. I TOTALLY voted yes to your question. I'm sick of the tributes and references because they are hallow. I have seen people in the last nine months stand in front of the smoldering debris of WTC to have their pictures taken as if it was some tourist attraction and then turn around and say "We're here to show our respect for the people that died." Bullshit.

And it gets worse. I remember reading a story about some group of people in some midwestern town that made a quilt for New York and sent it to us. What is the city supposed to do with a quilt? At that point, it was October and city officials were more worried about working on the cleanup and recovery and some quilter in Iowa was complaining that the city hadn't found a place to display her tribute to the victims of 9/11. Um...hello? We kind of had other stuff to worry about.

As for not turning it in to a pop culture event, I think we may be too late.

 

[dream wanderer]

.

And it gets worse. I remember reading a story about some group of people in some midwestern town that made a quilt for New York and sent it to us. What is the city supposed to do with a quilt? At that point, it was October and city officials were more worried about working on the cleanup and recovery and some quilter in Iowa was complaining that the city hadn't found a place to display her tribute to the victims of 9/11. Um...hello? We kind of had other stuff to worry about.

As for not turning it in to a pop culture event, I think we may be too late.

If you want to make quilts for NYC...how about giving them to the homeless shelter or the women's shelters...or to a home for kid's with HIV...be much more appreciated..

dream wanderer

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

sharky, i totally agreed with everything you said. it's sad that so many people who have put in an insane amount of hours into helping clean up everything that they go unrecognized, while the fire department is given almost a god-like status. while i do totally commend NYFD for their bravery and hard work, i just don't think it's fair for them to get all the limelight. however, i do know it's not their fault. it's just the media's, so i didn't find it all that surprising.

and about the quilt...dear god. i hate people who do something nice and charitable, and then whine when they haven't received ample attention for it. it pisses me off cuz it just shows they didn't do it out of the goodness of their heart, they did it to get their face on the cover of newspapers and to get on a talk show. i think the city should turn around and donate it to a homeless shelter or something, like dream wanderer mentioned. after all, giving the quilt to charity will do a lot more help for the city than framing it and displaying it somewhere.

 

[sharky]

ahhh.....turns out the story in question ran on the Wall St. Journal's web site in May about the stuff we have. Here are some excerpts.

In Chicago, a giant rope is being woven out of items dear to city residents: baby blankets and wedding dresses, graduation gowns and military uniforms. Heavy with memories and longer than a football field, the rope will be a gift to New York City -- specifically, its firefighters -- as a gesture of hope after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Trouble is, New York doesn't really want the rope. "We just don't have a good place to put it," says David Billig, a spokesman for the city's fire department. Lacking space, many artworks sent to the department wind up in storage instead of on display, he said.

.......

For those who poured their hearts into gifts, the city's seeming indifference can rankle. Michelle Parent, a 12-year-old from Lake Forest, Calif., is coming to New York to lay a necklace of about 10,000 Band-Aids -- symbolizing healing -- around ground zero on Memorial Day. Her mother, Carrie, says she sent several e-mails and letters inviting Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the event but got no response. "I find it really disgusting that nobody could take the trouble to respond, even to decline," says Ms. Parent. A City Hall spokesman says the mayor's staff usually responds to every letter within 10 days, and someone is looking into the matter. The Band-Aids, donated by Johnson & Johnson and Wal-Mart, are covered with messages of hope from the Orange County community. Ms. Parent, a real-estate agent, says the project was inspired by the widows of Sept. 11 who gave birth after the attack.

Video producer Joe Saunders of Memphis, Tenn., is also disappointed by the reception for his offering, a few hundred CDs of music he composed. He says he wrote the music after the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999, and he hoped the songs would give some solace to victims' families.

He sent the CDs to the fire department via his local firehouse, but he hasn't heard a word from New York City. "I don't know if they even got it," Mr. Saunders says. (In fact, the CDs have made it as far as the New York City Fire Museum, where they sit in an office mixed in with stacks of other donated CDs.)

Many donors find their efforts thwarted by measures intended to protect the privacy of victims' families. Canadian artist David Xui, who paints portraits on eggshells (Queen Elizabeth II has one), wanted to offer individual portraits of firefighters to their families. But the fire department wouldn't release contact details.

Undaunted, Mr. Xui -- who lost a friend in the attack -- went ahead with his project. Now most of the 343 portraits on hollowed-out eggshells are complete, but Mr. Xui doesn't know where to send them.

Like Mr. Saunders's songs, the eggs may wind up at the Fire Museum. Curator Peter Rothenberg says he's hesitant because the eggs require special display cases the museum lacks. But he says he tries to show as many donations as he can, especially gifts "from the heart." On several occasions, he has placed items on display before donors came to visit, stuffing the gifts back into storage after the donors left.

Gift delegates who make a special trip to the city are usually disappointed to find they don't get to meet the mayor or victims' families. "They get so sad when they find there are no press conferences, not even cake and coffee," Mr. Rothenberg says.

Now the museum, a former firehouse in New York's SoHo neighborhood, has more than 20 paintings of the World Trade Center tragedy on its walls. There are also collages, sculptures and a six-foot-tall wooden cross studded with red, white and blue lights. Mr. Rothenberg turned down a second, matching cross. The museum has traditionally rented out space for children's parties and weddings, he says, and too many Sept. 11 exhibits can damp festivities.

Artwork continues to flood fire-department headquarters, too. One especially frequent donation: hand-stitched quilts. "I wish the pace were slackening," says Mr. Billig, the fire department spokesman. The department is grateful, but firehouses simply weren't meant to serve as galleries. "Firemen -- I love them to pieces -- but they're real dirty when they come back from work," Mr. Billig says.

 

[Stories for Boys]

it's very sweet of these people, but imho, everyone should read this article and realize it's better to donate helpful things....like money......