One of the darkest days in the United States’ history and you can commemorate it with a $12.95 Tribute in Lights bookmark. A 9/11 memorial museum set to open this week and sits on the very ground the towers fell will also feature a gift shop. Selling such items as T-shirts, hoodies, keychains, hats and bookmarks, those directly and indirectly affected by the attacks are outraged.
Says one mother who lost her son to the attack, “Here is essentially our tomb of the unknown. To sell baubles I find quite shocking… I think it’s a money-making venture to support inflated salaries, and they’re willing to do it over my son’s dead body.”
Items available for purchase at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
Several New Yorkers feel the museum is not meant for them, as one man said, “It was made for people who don’t really know what 9/11 is about… 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.”
Others aren’t bothered by the shop, as the museum is completely self-funded through admission fees and sales. CNN spoke with the museum CEO who said:
What’s most important is whether the stories it tells… helps fulfill our promise to never forget… We have to pay for it, we have to make sure this museum is available forever for everyone.
The museum also states on their website that families of victims will never be charged an admittance fee.
What do you think? Is the shop in poor taste? Or with other famous museums, such as the Dallas’ Sixth Floor Museum, the Pearl Harbor Museum and even the National Holocaust Museum featuring their own gift shops, is this just the norm?
