Overheard in Starbucks, Upper East side Manhattan

[soleft]

"Okay, so tomorrow we'll go to ground zero, and then we'll get the manicure"


And the Repubs aren't even here yet!

:mad:

[WindRavenX]

1. Wow. That's bad.

This NJ-native, upon going to Ground Zero for the first time, nearly collapsed.
The area around GZ has become a tourist trap who don't know how to act respectful- THERE WERE PEOPLE TAKING FUCKING CELL PHONE CALLS ALL AROUND ME.
Good GOD I am LIVID just thinking about it.

[Pachamama]

4. 1st time I went to Ground Zero's Site, January 2002, I did collapse...

...I cried for a long time...My husband and I both lost between the two of us 5 friends....I had been at atleast 5 parties in my lifetime at the Windows on the World restaraunt (including for the Windows 3.0 launch from Microsoft) and numerous biz meetings in my lifetime. I felt sick and was shaking....the idea that people trivialize it and would say something so shallow (or talk on cell phones there) is what is the matter w/ our country...

[soleft]

6. I went to Windows for my 3rd anniversary

I was pregnant at the time and I remembered being worried that I would go into labor and not be able to get down the elevator in time.
I have friend who lost who whole department, she had decided to go in late that day, and she still hasn't gone yet.

[soleft]

5. I went to the Path Station for the first time a few weeks ago

I work right near there, but hadn't been over to the west side in a while. I took the E train instead of the A and ended up in the Chambers Street station, it was very eery walking through the entrance into the area where they used to have the shopping mall at the top of the path esclators. I stood there thinking, that's where the Borders, that's where the tie store was. And then I looked around and realized that there were tourists all over the place. i guess it's like visiting the Arizona in Pearl Harbor.

[WindRavenX]

7. oh man, I remember coming up GZ on the PATH...

...and I had totally forgotten that the WTC PATH had reopened (previous visit to NYC, I took the 33rd St. exit). So imagnine coming up from the ruins of GZ from Hoboken...
ughh.

[ronnykmarshall]

19. I went this past spring

This was my first trip to NYC since the attacks. When we got off the subway at Fulton Street, I looked up and saw that were near the site.

I was shaking as we walked to Ground Zero. I walked up the fence and leaned my head against it and started crying. Some asshole walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy some pictures. I just glared at him.

[Pachamama]

2. Ugh, that's so....Republican....

Your right, imagine how bad it will be when they are there for the "gathering"...

:puke:

[brainshrub]

3. I hate to say this but:

Get used to it. Turning tragedies into tourist-traps is a time honored American tradition.

If it will make you feel better, go visit Gettysburg and buy a hot-dog with cheesy-fries.

[1monster]

8. I did the tour of Gettysburg... It was very well done.

I was in tears and so was my husband. I think that the Gettysburg Tour should be required by every citizen in the US. It brings home the horrific wastefulness of life in war.

As for the hot dog and cheezy fries, even folks touring battlefields need to eat. Would a five-course dinner be better?

[Pachamama]

9. What is the general mood in NYC about the onslaught of Repukes?

Hi Soleft! Just curious....I've always thought of NYC as very liberal and especially after all the record breaking attendances at F 9/11, I just wondered what the general feeling was...I hope that New Yorkers come out in droves against the convention and that there are tons of protests....let America "See" how people, especially NYC feels about Bu$h and dare him to try and stand on the deaths of the people at the WTC for his re-election...

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. The mood in the city is pissed

I'm hearing from lots of people about "we've already made our plans to make sure we're out of the city that week" and others saying how bad it is that they are having their convention here, out of disgust. Even from some of the more traditional/conservative (though not freeper in any way) members of my church.

In fact, at my church, which for the 7 years I've been there I never heard people talking politics, I'm hearing a LOT of Shrub and rightwing republican bashing. And my church has a LOT of high up executive level corporate people, working for the big firms, or owning their own big firms and consulting businesses. People of the economic demographic that many at DU (and me included, I can't claim innocence) would just assume are republican supporters. Thankfully, most of them at the church are good Christians, and are tired of seeing people lose their jobs, their homes, and their livelihoods, and are tired of the war, and are tired of having an asshole idiot running the country.

It's been quite wonderful hearing the people finally getting pissed off enough that they talk of politics at coffee hour and etc. I *know* they're angry, because politics has long been taboo there.

[soleft]

16. The worse thing is having to see that damn Ed Koch commercial

He makes it sound like a bunch of sweet old ladies are coming to town and will need help crossing the street. What an f'ing traitor.

I wish I was getting out of town but unfortunatly - or maybe fortunately because I'd like to join a protest or two - I'm going to be away the week before.

Security seems to be tightening - the other day a guy was going thru my lobby at work and he had to turn on his lap top in front of the security guard to prove it was a lap top.

[drumwolf]

10. Hell yeah, it is absolutely a tourist trap now.

I'm a New York native who visited Ground Zero in December 2003, the first time I've come back to NYC since 9/11. That area is every bit as much of a tourist destination now as it was before the WTC was attacked.

The thing is, the site itself really doesn't look like a place where a horrific tragedy happened anymore. All the twisted wreckage is long gone, so the area within the big fence all around the site looks just like a construction site, while the area right outside the fence looks like a big outdoor museum.

The most chilling part of my visit to Ground Zero was not being right at the site -- it was being two or three blocks away. I lived in Jersey City at one point and took the PATH to Manhattan every day, so I often went to the WTC to take the PATH. So I remembered all of the physical landmarks and features of the region right around the WTC. It was really sobering to go up the stairs of the subway and see the huge hole in the sky where the WTC used to be. And it also hit home when I walked a couple of blocks to the TGIF restaurant that has always been two blocks away from the WTC site.

[theivoryqueen]

12. maybe they intended to dig

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. I still can't go there. The only way I will go is to deny the GOP

the use of it.

[pagerbear]

18. Me too.

I can't bear it.

I wasn't in the city when it happened--I was driving back from my grandmother's funeral. Months later I realized if I'd been here I'd have witnessed the whole thing from the West Side Highway (yes, in my car). It's a blessing I didn't.

As for the convention, I'd love to get out of town when the fascists are here, but I can't get away from work. I have to take the A train from upstate Manhattan (way, way up there!) through Penn Station/Madison Square Garden to my stop in lower Manhattan. I just can't wait. Well, at least I always have a seat.

[Swamp Rat]

14. I haven't been to NY since the mid 80s

My father is from Manhattan and so are my ancestors who came through Ellis Island over a hundred years ago. I want to go back and visit but I can't bring myself to do it yet... let alone afford it. Folks acting callus or aloof about the WTC does bother me, but they have the right to speak freely just as I have the right to say something too, perhaps like: "imagine that your mother dies and I set up a hot dog stand next to your mother's grave while my friend snaps photos of the 'dead lady's grave' and sells them as postcards, even though you ask us not to."

As for the Repug convention, they do not give a shit about the dead except when it makes for a good photo-op.

[VolcanoJen]

15. While in Washington, DC, earlier this month...

... I overheard two women on the Metro discussing Ground Zero.

"Well, I really think we should go to Ground Zero."

"Can we get there easily? I hear it's really crowded."

"When we get to Metro Center, we'll ask."

:shrug:

[Bunny]

17. I visited the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset PA a few weeks ago.

And discovered that the locals who tend to the memorial actually had to establish a "no solicitation or commercial activity" type of provision because: in the spring of 2002, a local church apparently set up a hoagie sale at the site!! Do you believe it? A place where 40 people lost their lives in a terrible crash, and a CHURCH, of all things, decides to sell hoagies? :wtf:

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

22. Especially horrifying since the sister of my Pastor died in that

crash. I know he would be appalled at this news.

[Lavender Brown]

20. I see people with "Ground Zero" t-shirts and baseball caps all the time

It makes me ill. It's not Disneyland, people. :mad:

[sus]

21. here's a good one from over the weekend:

Because nothing says "Hey, kids, Tigger!" quite like crystal meth addiction.

[fujiyama]

23. What pisses me off

is how republicans tried to own the grief and anger after 9/11. It was disgusting.

Basically, if you are to disagree with Bush about anything, conservatives ask, "What about what happened on 9/11?".

Now, they will exploit those 3,000 lives for their political gain. It's really very frustrating. After all, it wasn't just a bunch of conservatives that died. Then again, we saw the RWers compassion during the 9/11 commision and how they started calling them names once they started asking questions.

[NoodleBoy]

24. a guy I had a class with..

was with one of the groups that first made it into the mall after the collapse. I know it's not really my place to be taking up his experience as my own, but the look in his eyes when he described it to us could only be the look of someone who thought they could handle anything, but then found out the truth. It was like trying to shoulder a part of that crushed a piece of his soul.