New Yorkers in Exile

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As 9/11 Museum Opens, These New Yorkers Will Stay Away
By ALAN FEUERMAY 16, 2014

The National September 11 Memorial Museum is meant to be an exercise in the cathartic power of memory. At its formal unveiling on Thursday, President Obama gave a somber speech, remarking that the lives of those who died in the terrorist attacks in 2001 would be honored by the stories told “in the footprint of two mighty towers.”

But for some New Yorkers, the memories and stories are already too present, and despite the importance of the museum’s message — and despite its great reviews — they do not plan to visit when it opens to the public next week.

Some people said they did not need a public exhibition to remind them of a personal tragedy that they could not forget. Others simply said they would not find healing or relief at the memorial — only more pain.

The local ambivalence is a complicated mixture of survivors’ pride (“Don’t tell me what I saw”) and emotional fatigue (“I don’t want to see it anymore”). But it also stems from the museum’s own complicated mission, which, as Holland Cotter noted in his review in The New York Times, is to be at once “a historical document, a monument to the dead” and “a theme-park-style tourist attraction.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel,” said Justine Tourneau, a 30-year-old actress, who was waiting on Thursday morning for a J train to arrive at Marcy Street in Brooklyn. “Am I supposed to cry? Or get angry? Or just stand there, being silent? It’s too confusing. I’d rather not go.”

The hesitation seems particularly acute among those who were in the city on the day of the attacks and who lost someone close.

“Look, it’s not the Natural History Museum,” said Jim Riches, a former chief in the Fire Department, whose son, Jim Jr., also a firefighter, died on Sept. 11. “I know plenty of guys who won’t go down there because they were there for months when it was Dante’s inferno. The memories are just too much. They simply won’t go back.”

At the time of the attack, Bill Grueskin was working for The Wall Street Journal in the World Financial Center across the street from ground zero. He still has not forgotten how the streets were enveloped in a cloud of ghostly smoke. To make matters worse, Mr. Grueskin was living just down the street in Battery Park City then. So for him, the experience was total — no escape.

“The fact is, I’d like to see the museum,” said Mr. Grueskin, who is now a dean at the Columbia Journalism School, “but I’m not sure I can do it surrounded by people who didn’t go through what I went through. I’m not saying I deserve it, but I’d really like to see the place in private. I just can’t bear the thought of being there with all the buses and tourists in silly hats.”

This week, some of the victims’ relatives appeared at the memorial to protest a decision by officials to transfer the unidentified remains of some of those who died from the Manhattan medical examiner’s office to a specially built repository under the museum. Almost from the moment that the plans for the museum got underway, the families have differed with one another about its purpose and design. Some have even differed among themselves.

“My family is a mixed bag,” said Kathy Bowden, whose brother, Thomas Bowden Jr., died in the attack. “I’m open to it. It hurts to see it, but it also, for me, soothes the hurt a little each time. My husband hates the museum. He hates the idea of having a place, because he hates the idea that 9/11 even happened.”

Discomfort with the museum was felt not just by those with a close connection to the terrorist attacks. The Times on Wednesday asked readers to respond to the question, “Will you visit the National September 11 Memorial Museum?” Of the 150 or so answers, a majority were negative: “I don’t think so,” “not likely,” “no way,” “not a chance.”

“I won’t visit it anytime soon,” Mitch Abidor, a 62-year-old retired hospital administrator, wrote. “It promises to be filled with gawking, ghoulish out-of-towners who will overwhelm the New Yorkers, who lived through the sorrow of those days and will have a hard time getting in.”

Another reader, identified as Samrn, wrote: “The few times in the past near-14 years I have had to be downtown started with tears that progressed to stress-induced asthma and ended with a return of the nightmares. This place will exist for the tourists. My memories are enough trauma for me.”

Some in the city said they would encourage tourists to visit the museum, even if they themselves had no interest in visiting.

“I would go if a family member came down and wanted to go,” said Sarah Summerwell, 27, a bartender who works on Chambers Street.

“But I don’t think it’s something I’d look to come down to see myself. As someone who works in this neighborhood, ground zero is a real presence you feel every day.”

And waiting for a bus near Central Park, Robin Tempelman, a 49-year-old psychologist, said: “I just don’t feel like visiting because it’s in the past and I’m comfortable with how I dealt with it. If other people want to go, I think it’s great.”

Then there was John Cartier, whose brother, James, died on the 105th floor of the south tower. Mr. Cartier said he did plan to visit the museum, in honor of his brother, even if he felt it was not designed for him.

“It was made for people who don’t really know what 9/11 is about,” Mr. Cartier explained. “No one who went through what we went through needs a museum to tell us what we lost. We already know that in our hearts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/nyregion/9-11-museum-not-a-must-see-site-for-all-new-yorkers.html?ref=nyregion

I'll pass.