9/11 museum gift shop backlash just another step in healing process
Today the 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to the public in New York City. Ground
Zero already is a must-see for visitors to the Big Apple, so undoubtedly the
museum will become one of the city’s biggest attractions, if not the top
attraction this summer even with its $24 admission.
Since the museum’s dedication and opening to families of 9/11 victims last week, the biggest point of contention about the facility is its gift shop. Some victims’ relatives and others are hopping mad about even the idea of having a gift shop at what they consider a sacred site.
To them, it is holy ground that should be treated reverentially and approached most seriously and humbly. They find selling bracelets bearing the words on the wall holding the entombed remains of unidentified victims at the site, or key chains, or children’s plush rescue dogs to be abhorrent, if not sacrilegious.
I can understand their resentment of trying to make a buck where their loved ones died, and where many are buried. Selling doggie raincoats made like a New York Fire Department turnout coat and trivial gee-gaws like bottle openers, pencil sharpeners and refrigerator magnets is crass. I agree it’s in poor taste and disrespectful, too, and I’m just glad no one was crass enough to stock toy airplanes at the gift shop.
I also can appreciate the anger and pain victims’ survivors feel at what they believe to be the trivialization of about 3,000 deaths. For some, it picks at their unhealed wounds still troubling them even 13 years later.
A combination memorial and museum on the site of the Twin Towers was inevitable, and it’s appropriate. It gives people a place where they can pay homage to those who died, pay tribute to the sacrifices of police, firefighters, rescue workers and all those who came forward to help, and to see firsthand where everything happened. Having the museum may enable us as a country to finally move past that day. Not forget it — there’s no way 9/11 ever will be forgotten — but hopefully to place the bandage that will let people finally heal their still-open wounds.
As for the gift shop, well, I’ve not heard of a museum without some sort of gift shop. In Texas, the Alamo still is treated as a shrine and due respect is expected to be shown by visitors (men are even asked to doff their hats), but there’s also a gift shop. The USS Arizona, a national memorial that is the resting place of 1,102 sailors and Marines and an eternal symbol of the attack on Pearl Harbor has a gift shop.
Battlefields at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Little Big Horn, Vicksburg and even Pea Ridge here in Arkansas have gift shops. What I found astounding is even the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum — the last place I would have imagined having one — has a gift shop. Even the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, commemorating the most similar event to 9/11, has a gift shop. According to an article I read, there were no cries of anguish when the Oklahoma City museum’s gift shop opened, but it also was noted that was in pre-Internet and social media days.
Undoubtedly there was some anger and disappointment at first that people at places such as these had the audacity to sell souvenirs, but the anger slackened over time. Perhaps the proximity in time to 9/11 is what aggravates so many, and as time passes the anger and pain will fade.
The key is what is made available at a museum or memorial’s gift shop. Books, DVDs, audios and material about the subject of the museum are appropriate, especially ones that can teach children and help them understand its importance. Some may consider them tacky, but shirts and caps related to the museum are appropriate and help spread the word and generate interest about it. No museum gift shop would be complete without postcards, and lapel pins, buttons, patches pens and pencils are popular among collectors of such items. And don’t forget coffee mugs and glasses.
I believe things such as plush animals, unrelated toys, anything for pets, and those gee-gaws can be tacky and inappropriate at museums such as those mentioned. They’re all right for Sea World, Silver Dollar City, or Six Flags, but not the Holocaust Museum ... not the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
Gift shops serve the purpose of enabling visitors to have a remembrance of the place and, most importantly, providing revenue to maintain and operate the museums. They don’t have to be distasteful, or disrespectful, and many of the ones I’ve seen have opted for good taste
I don’t think disrespect is the intent of those behind the 9/11 museum and gift shop. I do think the opening of both and the feelings being stirred are is just two more steps in the healing process for people still trying to get through that horrible day.
Since the museum’s dedication and opening to families of 9/11 victims last week, the biggest point of contention about the facility is its gift shop. Some victims’ relatives and others are hopping mad about even the idea of having a gift shop at what they consider a sacred site.
To them, it is holy ground that should be treated reverentially and approached most seriously and humbly. They find selling bracelets bearing the words on the wall holding the entombed remains of unidentified victims at the site, or key chains, or children’s plush rescue dogs to be abhorrent, if not sacrilegious.
I can understand their resentment of trying to make a buck where their loved ones died, and where many are buried. Selling doggie raincoats made like a New York Fire Department turnout coat and trivial gee-gaws like bottle openers, pencil sharpeners and refrigerator magnets is crass. I agree it’s in poor taste and disrespectful, too, and I’m just glad no one was crass enough to stock toy airplanes at the gift shop.
I also can appreciate the anger and pain victims’ survivors feel at what they believe to be the trivialization of about 3,000 deaths. For some, it picks at their unhealed wounds still troubling them even 13 years later.
A combination memorial and museum on the site of the Twin Towers was inevitable, and it’s appropriate. It gives people a place where they can pay homage to those who died, pay tribute to the sacrifices of police, firefighters, rescue workers and all those who came forward to help, and to see firsthand where everything happened. Having the museum may enable us as a country to finally move past that day. Not forget it — there’s no way 9/11 ever will be forgotten — but hopefully to place the bandage that will let people finally heal their still-open wounds.
As for the gift shop, well, I’ve not heard of a museum without some sort of gift shop. In Texas, the Alamo still is treated as a shrine and due respect is expected to be shown by visitors (men are even asked to doff their hats), but there’s also a gift shop. The USS Arizona, a national memorial that is the resting place of 1,102 sailors and Marines and an eternal symbol of the attack on Pearl Harbor has a gift shop.
Battlefields at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Little Big Horn, Vicksburg and even Pea Ridge here in Arkansas have gift shops. What I found astounding is even the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum — the last place I would have imagined having one — has a gift shop. Even the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, commemorating the most similar event to 9/11, has a gift shop. According to an article I read, there were no cries of anguish when the Oklahoma City museum’s gift shop opened, but it also was noted that was in pre-Internet and social media days.
Undoubtedly there was some anger and disappointment at first that people at places such as these had the audacity to sell souvenirs, but the anger slackened over time. Perhaps the proximity in time to 9/11 is what aggravates so many, and as time passes the anger and pain will fade.
The key is what is made available at a museum or memorial’s gift shop. Books, DVDs, audios and material about the subject of the museum are appropriate, especially ones that can teach children and help them understand its importance. Some may consider them tacky, but shirts and caps related to the museum are appropriate and help spread the word and generate interest about it. No museum gift shop would be complete without postcards, and lapel pins, buttons, patches pens and pencils are popular among collectors of such items. And don’t forget coffee mugs and glasses.
I believe things such as plush animals, unrelated toys, anything for pets, and those gee-gaws can be tacky and inappropriate at museums such as those mentioned. They’re all right for Sea World, Silver Dollar City, or Six Flags, but not the Holocaust Museum ... not the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
Gift shops serve the purpose of enabling visitors to have a remembrance of the place and, most importantly, providing revenue to maintain and operate the museums. They don’t have to be distasteful, or disrespectful, and many of the ones I’ve seen have opted for good taste
I don’t think disrespect is the intent of those behind the 9/11 museum and gift shop. I do think the opening of both and the feelings being stirred are is just two more steps in the healing process for people still trying to get through that horrible day.
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