At 9/11 Museum Dedication, Remembrance and Resilience
May 17, 2014
NEW YORK — In a vast underground hall beside twisted and graffiti-adorned steel remnants of New York’s twin towers, President Obama
and other dignitaries joined rescue workers and families of Sept. 11
victims Thursday to dedicate the new National September 11 Memorial
Museum.
Flags outside were at
half-staff on the World Trade Center memorial plaza, where bronze panels
bear the engraved names of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in
New York, Northern Virginia and Pennsylvania in 2001, and in the bombing
of the World Trade Center in 1993.
About 700 guests attended the
somber ceremony held in the museum’s Foundation Hall, 70 feet beneath
ground level at bedrock. As some audience members wiped tears from their
faces, or held on to family members, elected officials, survivors and
rescue workers rose one by one to talk about the victims and what was
left behind.
“No act of terror can match the strength or the character of our country,” President Obama told the crowd
during the one-hour dedication ceremony. “Like the great wall and
bedrock that embrace us today,” he added, “nothing can ever break us.”
The event brought together
under one roof political leaders whose careers have been influenced by
Sept. 11. President Obama was commander in chief when the mastermind of
the attacks, Osama bin Laden, was killed in 2011. Rudolph W. Giuliani
was widely praised for his handling of the crisis as mayor in 2001, but
misjudged the mood of the city when he sought to leverage it into a
third term in office. His successor as mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, is
widely credited with helping to steer New York back to stability and
prosperity in the years that followed.
Although the president in his
remarks referred obliquely to how “our SEALs made sure that justice was
done” three years ago, he did not refer to Bin Laden by name. Instead,
the president joined the other speakers in focusing his remarks on the
victims who perished in flames and smoke and those who tried to save
them.
He singled out the heroism of Welles Crowther, 24, a young man with a red bandanna who helped save people in the south tower
before it collapsed, killing him. His identity was long unknown until
months later, when his mother read an article about the mysterious
savior with the bandanna.
Alison Crowther mounted the
stage to say that she and her husband “could not be more proud” of their
son. “Welles believed that we are all connected as one human family,”
she said. “This is the true legacy of September 11.”
Mr. Bloomberg hosted the event,
as chairman of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and
described the museum as “a testament to the resilience, the courage and
the compassion of the human spirit.”
He showed the president around
some of the exhibits beforehand, accompanied by Michelle Obama, former
President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton. At the ceremony they
were joined by other political figures, including Govs. Chris Christie
of New Jersey and Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mr.
Giuliani, former Gov. George E. Pataki and former Gov. Donald T.
DiFrancesco of New Jersey.
A spokesman for former President George W. Bush said he was invited but could not make it because of a scheduling conflict.
“Amazing Grace,” was sung by Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, an actress and Broadway singer who was pregnant when her husband, Calvin Gooding, was killed at the World Trade Center.
Foundation Hall is dominated by
a giant slurry wall — the underground construction that survived the
initial attacks and held back the waters of the Hudson River after the
towers collapsed. In the hall’s center is the Last Column, the final
steel beam to be removed from ground zero.
9·11紀念館落成，眾人緬懷逝者
紀念9·112014年05月17日
美國總統奧巴馬、前總統克林頓、紐約兩任前市長布隆伯格和朱利安尼出席了儀式。
紐約——周四，在一座龐大的地下大廳里，奧巴馬總統以及其他政要、救援人員和9·11遇難者家屬共同參加了國家9·11紀念博物館的落成儀式。在他們身旁是紐約雙子塔形狀扭曲的鋼鐵殘骸，上面畫著塗鴉。
大廳外的世貿中心紀念廣場降了半旗，銅製的嵌板上鐫刻着將近3000人的名字，囊括了2001年在紐約、北弗吉尼亞和賓夕法尼亞喪生，以及1993年在世貿中心爆炸事件中罹難的人。
大約700名賓客參加了在地下70英尺（約合21米）的基岩處、博物館的地基廳里舉行的這個莊重儀式。官員、倖存者和救援人員一一起身，講述遇難者和他們身後的故事，與此同時，有聽眾拭去臉上的淚水，或者和家人相互扶持。
在長達一小時的落成儀式上，奧巴馬對眾人說，「沒有什麼恐怖行徑能夠與我們國家的力量和勇氣匹敵，就像今天環繞着我們的堅實牆壁和基岩，沒有什麼可以摧毀我們。」
這次活動讓一些職業生涯受到9·11事件影響的政治領導人聚到了一
起。2011年擊斃9·11襲擊策劃者奧薩馬·本·拉登(Osama bin
Laden)的時候，奧巴馬是三軍統帥。2001年，時任紐約市長魯道夫·W·朱利安尼(Rudolph W.
Giuliani)處理危機的表現受到了廣泛稱讚，不過，他尋求利用此事贏得第三任期的做法卻誤判了市民的情緒。在此後的幾年，他的繼任者邁克爾·R·布
隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)幫助紐約恢復了穩定和繁榮，並因此受到廣泛讚譽。
儘管奧巴馬在講話時模糊地提到，三年前「我們的海豹突擊隊保證正義得到了伸張」，但他沒有提及本·拉登的名字。奧巴馬和其他演講人，都把講話內容專註於在火海和濃煙中遇難的人們，以及那些曾努力營救他們的人。
奧巴馬特別談起了韋爾斯·克勞瑟(Welles Crowther)的英勇事迹。這個隨身攜帶着一條紅色印花大手帕的年輕人當時只有24歲，他幫助營救了南塔里的人員，最終卻在這棟樓坍塌時遇難。然而，直到他去世幾個月後，當他的母親讀到了一篇關於帶着大手帕的神秘救援者的文章時，他的身份才被外界得知。
艾莉森·克勞瑟(Alison Crowther)走到台上說，她和丈夫對兒子感到「無與倫比地驕傲」。「韋爾斯相信，我們是一個彼此相聯的人類大家庭，」她說。「這才是9·11的真正遺產。」
作為國家9·11紀念與博物館(National September 11 Memorial and Museum)的主席，布隆伯格主持了儀式。他說，這座博物館「是人類精神中堅韌、勇氣和悲憫的證明」。
他帶着奧巴馬提前參觀了一些展品，同行的還有米歇爾·奧巴馬
(Michelle Obama)、前總統比爾·克林頓(Bill Clinton)以及希拉里·羅德姆·克林頓(Hillary Rodham
Clinton)。出席儀式的政界人士還包括，新澤西州長克里斯·克里斯蒂(Chris Christie)、紐約州長安德魯·M·庫默(Andrew
M. Cuomo)、紐約市長比爾·白思豪(Bill de Blasio)、朱利安尼、前紐約州長喬治·E·帕塔基(George E.
Pataki)，以及前新澤西州長唐納德·迪弗朗切斯科(Donald T. DiFrancesco)。
前總統喬治·W·布殊(George W. Bush)的發言人稱，他收到了邀請，但因為時間衝突不能出席。
演員兼百老匯歌手朗達·拉香姿·賽普(Rhonda LaChanze Sapp)演唱了《奇異恩典》(Amazing Grace)。她的丈夫卡爾文·古丁(Calvin Gooding)在世貿中心喪生，當時她正身懷六甲。
地基廳內最顯眼的東西就是一面巨大的地下連續牆——這一結構挺住了最初的襲擊，並在雙子塔坍塌之後阻擋了哈德遜河的水。在大廳的中心是「最後的立柱」，也就是從原爆點移走的最後一根鋼樑。
翻譯：王湛
Are the 9/11 museum's commemorative toys and hoodies a step too far?
Early
visitors to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York have complained about
the merchandise for sale in the shop. But it's not the first museum to
tread a delicate line in souvenirs
9/11 Memorial Museum merchandise.
There is a gift shop at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, which opens this week in New York.
Should that be surprising? It is a museum, after all, a place that will
no doubt be visited by many tourists who will want to take home
souvenirs. The exhibition also needs their money, on top of what it
receives in donations and admission fees, in order to meet the $63m
annual cost of staying open. Even on a project of such sensitivity, this
must have seemed like common sense at the planning stage.
Some of the early visitors, however, who come from among those with a personal connection to 9/11, do not see it that way. "I think it's a money-making venture to support inflated salaries," Diane Horning told the New York Post, "and they're willing to do it over my son's dead body." In this case, those words are almost literally true. The museum is built underground beside a "remains repository" containing roughly 8,000 unidentified body parts, quite possibly including Horning's son Matthew, whose remains were never found.
What's actually on sale in the gift shop is another tricky matter. In places, it seems to turn remembering 9/11 into something like a fashion statement. There is the black twin towers hoodie emblazoned with the words, "In darkness we shine brightest" ($39). There is the silk scarf printed with a full-colour twin towers design ($95). There is even the Search & Rescue Dog cuddly toy ($19.95). Whether anybody buys these items, we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, and in the new museum's defence, it is worth noting that this is far from the first commemorative gift shop in the world.
Here are four more museums with a sensitive line in souvenirs:
Get the 'wartime expereince' at the Imperial War Museum.
Besides keeping lots of old tanks and guns, at least part of the
IWMs' remit is to document the "wartime experience", including life on
the home front. As a result, in the gift shop you can spend £10 on a "vintage Marmite cake tin" or even a "retro alarm clock", in a choice of red or green.
Some of the early visitors, however, who come from among those with a personal connection to 9/11, do not see it that way. "I think it's a money-making venture to support inflated salaries," Diane Horning told the New York Post, "and they're willing to do it over my son's dead body." In this case, those words are almost literally true. The museum is built underground beside a "remains repository" containing roughly 8,000 unidentified body parts, quite possibly including Horning's son Matthew, whose remains were never found.
What's actually on sale in the gift shop is another tricky matter. In places, it seems to turn remembering 9/11 into something like a fashion statement. There is the black twin towers hoodie emblazoned with the words, "In darkness we shine brightest" ($39). There is the silk scarf printed with a full-colour twin towers design ($95). There is even the Search & Rescue Dog cuddly toy ($19.95). Whether anybody buys these items, we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, and in the new museum's defence, it is worth noting that this is far from the first commemorative gift shop in the world.
Here are four more museums with a sensitive line in souvenirs:
Auschwitz-Birkenau
At the scene of perhaps the greatest atrocity in living memory, and indeed online at the official Auschwitz website, you can buy memorial CDs and DVDs, postcards, books and posters. This strikes some people as odd, but it is done quite solemnly, and the items are solely educational. There is certainly nothing you can wear.Imperial War Museum
Get the 'wartime expereince' at the Imperial War Museum.
Besides keeping lots of old tanks and guns, at least part of the
IWMs' remit is to document the "wartime experience", including life on
the home front. As a result, in the gift shop you can spend £10 on a "vintage Marmite cake tin" or even a "retro alarm clock", in a choice of red or green.
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