9/11 Memorial Getting Pricey.....

[Jamie B]

http://news.yahoo.com/wtc-memorial-magnificent-steep-price-132938429.html

But all that eye-welling magnificence comes with a jaw-dropping price tag. The foundation that runs the memorial estimates that once the roughly $700 million project is complete, the memorial and museum will together cost $60 million a year to operate.

The anticipated cost has bothered some critics and raised concerns even among the memorial's allies that the budget may be unsustainable without a hefty government subsidy.

God forbid that they used common sense, set a reasonable budget, and then followed it.

[kgbsquirrel]

Sweet jeebus, what are they doing? Giving out complimentary glasses of Johnny Walker Blue garnished with gold leaf? 

[erictank]

It's a beautiful site, but if it costs that much on an ongoing basis, I have to wonder about its sustainability.

And the museum wasn't even open during my visit a couple of months ago.

[seeker_two]

Sweet jeebus, what are they doing? Giving out complimentary glasses of Johnny Walker Blue garnished with gold leaf? 

Yes.....but only to the ones receiving kickbacks.....

[HankB]

It's New York City, the center of institutionalized corruption that Chicago politicians draw their inspiration from.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

ever build anything in new york?  it defies belief.  just a small example. i was building a non-bearing partition wall in a loft.  inspector gigged me because the 14 1/2 inch log 2x4 blocks i installed between each stud didn't have lumber grade marks visible. there is only one mark on each 2x4 so to comply with his edict i cut one piece off each 2x4 and threw the rest in the trash  so basically i tossed 80% of the wood

[kgbsquirrel]

ever build anything in new york?  it defies belief.  just a small example. i was building a non-bearing partition wall in a loft.  inspector gigged me because the 14 1/2 inch log 2x4 blocks i installed between each stud didn't have lumber grade marks visible. there is only one mark on each 2x4 so to comply with his edict i cut one piece off each 2x4 and threw the rest in the trash  so basically i tossed 80% of the wood

And let me guess, there's a law against you stenciling the pieces you cut off with the exact same information that was printed on the board farther down?

[HankB]

And let me guess, there's a law against you stenciling the pieces you cut off with the exact same information that was printed on the board farther down?

Sounds like an opportunity for a small stencil making business. 

[zxcvbob]

ever build anything in new york?  it defies belief.  just a small example. i was building a non-bearing partition wall in a loft.  inspector gigged me because the 14 1/2 inch log 2x4 blocks i installed between each stud didn't have lumber grade marks visible. there is only one mark on each 2x4 so to comply with his edict i cut one piece off each 2x4 and threw the rest in the trash  so basically i tossed 80% of the wood

He was fishin' for a twenty.   Maybe two, depending on the size of the wall.

[AZRedhawk44]

I don't think NYC or the Pentagon need a 9/11 memorial at all.

The only 9/11 site that merits a memorial in my opinion is a little field in Pennsylvania.

I don't believe in memorializing victims.  It creates a culture of victim worship, rather than upright people with a sense of self-worth.

[roo_ster]

I don't think NYC or the Pentagon need a 9/11 memorial at all.

The only 9/11 site that merits a memorial in my opinion is a little field in Pennsylvania.

I don't believe in memorializing victims.  It creates a culture of victim worship, rather than upright people with a sense of self-worth.

This.

Memorialize our victories, not our defeats. 

[dm1333]

So what about the people who were just going about their daily routine when all of a sudden an airplane flew into their building and they were killed?  Multiply that by close to 3000.  I think those people deserve a memorial.  Pearl Harbor was in no way shape or form a victory so should we get rid of the Arizona memorial?  Just a little food for thought.

[AZRedhawk44]

So what about the people who were just going about their daily routine when all of a sudden an airplane flew into their building and they were killed?  Multiply that by close to 3000.  I think those people deserve a memorial.  Pearl Harbor was in no way shape or form a victory so should we get rid of the Arizona memorial?  Just a little food for thought.

King Leonidas may have died at Thermopylae, but he fought back valiantly.

Pearl Harbor was not a victory... but at least they fought back and re-secured the harbor. 

Flight 93 may have died, but they fought back.

Folks in NYC deserve a memorial about as much as any random serial killer victim.  Folks in the Pentagon got caught with their pants down... that's the military heart of our armed forces and shouldn't have been hit with a plane/missile/chemtrail/spacealienblast/{insertConspiracyhere} so easily.

But Flight 93 did what free people are supposed to do.  We should honor them for it above all.

9/11 is one of the greatest crimes perpetrated against the rest of the country, and allowing NYC to claim monopoly over it ("all hail the sacred police officer and fireman and Agent of the State!  Such heroes!") is enormously destructive to civil liberties in this country.

I regret every penny spent on a 9/11 memorial either in DC or NYC. 

[longeyes]

The best memorial would be to act like real Americans, taking care of business here and abroad, whatever that implies.

This is just one more concretization of our obession with magical thinking.

[Tallpine]

I always thought that they should replace the twin towers with four towers: three all about the same height and one of the middle ones about twice as tall 

 

[longeyes]

The real question: Who benefits?

The usual suspects.  Monuments do not change the reality of the world, though they do make some people feel better.  Those are probably the people who vote for Obama and the people who still don't get what he is all about even though they oppose him.

Have we dealt with the threat posed by radical Islam (not just Al-Qaeda)?  No, we haven't.  In eleven years we have seen country after country becoming part of a Caliphatic confederation.  Syria is next.  Any more questions?  Ask Huma Abedin.

[dm1333]

Why not memorialize a brutal attack that killed 3000 people?  The only thing I would add to the memorial is any video we have of the attack on OBL's compound and the fact that he had guns in the room he was in but he didn't make a move to pick one up.  Just as a reminder to the whole world that this guy would exhort others to go out and kill and make a martyr of themselves, but when push came to shove he didn't have the guts to pick up a rifle himself.

[seeker_two]

Hiroshima & Nagasaki were our memorials to Pearl Harbor....

[zxcvbob]

I don't think NYC or the Pentagon need a 9/11 memorial at all.

The only 9/11 site that merits a memorial in my opinion is a little field in Pennsylvania.

I don't believe in memorializing victims.  It creates a culture of victim worship, rather than upright people with a sense of self-worth.

• NYC?  A granite marker (smaller than a Volkswagen) with enough space around it for people to put flowers.  But not enough room to stage a good photo-op or deliver a speech
• The field in Pennsylvania?  A national monument.
• The Pentagon?  A little bronze plaque near the main entrance, dedicated to their unpreparedness.

[longeyes]

Why not memorialize a brutal attack that killed 3000 people?  The only thing I would add to the memorial is any video we have of the attack on OBL's compound and the fact that he had guns in the room he was in but he didn't make a move to pick one up.  Just as a reminder to the whole world that this guy would exhort others to go out and kill and make a martyr of themselves, but when push came to shove he didn't have the guts to pick up a rifle himself.

Because a real "memorial" must include an understanding of what happened, why it happened, and what must be done about it.

This is a construction IN LIEU of all that. 

[AZRedhawk44]

Why not memorialize a brutal attack that killed 3000 people?  The only thing I would add to the memorial is any video we have of the attack on OBL's compound and the fact that he had guns in the room he was in but he didn't make a move to pick one up.  Just as a reminder to the whole world that this guy would exhort others to go out and kill and make a martyr of themselves, but when push came to shove he didn't have the guts to pick up a rifle himself.

The way it gets memorialized in NYC ends up singing praise to emergency responder workers (firemen and police and EMT's).  Even if we did dedicate a memorial to business folks working in office buildings that were rammed by an airplane, or to emergency workers who responded to the stricken building, it would be on par if we made a Pearl Harbor memorial for the fire crews racing around and pouring water on the burning P51's on the runways, or the nurses patching up the injured and dying sailors and airmen, or the civilian casualties experienced in Hawaii during the Japanese bombing raid.

Rather than to the crew of the Arizona and the other soldiers and sailors that did their duty that day and died trying to fend off the invading force.

No memorial to Pearl Harbor should trump that dedicated to the crew of the Arizona and her sister vessels in the fleet that day.

No memorial to 9/11 should trump that dedicated to the passengers of Flight 93.

[zxcvbob]

The way it gets memorialized in NYC ends up singing praise to emergency responder workers (firemen and police and EMT's).

Don't forget the heroic mayor who singlehandedly lead our entire nation out of the abyss.
(I just made myself sick)

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

He was fishin' for a twenty.   Maybe two, depending on the size of the wall.

he was fishing for a 100  he got it. 

[dm1333]

Because a real "memorial" must include an understanding of what happened, why it happened, and what must be done about it.

This is a construction IN LIEU of all that.

Says you.  By your reasoning the Arizona memorial isn't a real memorial either.  To a lot of us a memorial is an object that helps us remember somebody or something that happened.  It doesn't have to have any other meaning than just being a simple reminder.

[longeyes]

Today was another of those teachable moments.  Pres. Obama told us that what we learned from 9.11 was that America could never be knocked off-course by terrorists.  I'd have thought it was about who our enemy is and the extreme degree of their virulence; that is not just isolated groups of the disgruntled.  But that cannot happen in this kind of repressive climate of carefully constructed lies and scenarios.  I don't think we have really learned much if anything.  I feel awful for the good men lost in the endless diversion we call "foreign policy" in America.