World Trade Center........QUOTE FROM JIM RICHES.
They should have been told what the memorial symbolizes to so many families.
Instead, they came into a parklike atmosphere and acted accordingly.
It?s not just these kids. It happens on a daily basis.
When visitors arrive, they go through a metal detector and then are sent on to the memorial grounds without any real information.
People hang out. They sit around. They start talking loudly and joke.
I went to pay my respects to my son in September and visitors were lying on the grass eating and drinking like they were picnicking. They had cameras; one guy was throwing a football to another guy. It looked like a playground to me.
This is not Disney World, but that is the atmosphere the people who run the memorial have created.
When visitors arrive, why is there no effort to prepare them properly for the site they are about to enter? Why not teach them about what happened before admitting them?
Someone should speak to them about the meaning of the place they are about to visit and ask them to respect its solemnity, explaining that this is sacred ground to be treated as such.
The September 11 Memorial and Museum, which runs the site, is a private, nonprofit organization.
The people who run it should learn from the National Park Service, which runs the Shanksville, Pa., and Pentagon 9/11 memorials.
When you?re greeted at Pearl Harbor ? another solemn site run by the National Park Service ? the operators tell you about what happened. They tell you about the people who were killed.
Making the unidentified human remains from the Sept. 11 attacks a visible part of the memorial could also help create a more solemn atmosphere.
The remains could be put in an aboveground tomb, as they are at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. That would set a tone of reverence and respect.
Most important, it?s imperative that all, young and old, be educated about 9/11/01, the most tragic day in American history.
Jim Riches is a retired FDNY deputy chief. His son Firefighter Jimmy Riches died responding to the 9/11 attacks. UNQUOTE.
