Ground Zero, Year 6

So, Year Six. I took the shortest trip to Ground Zero out of the past few years, since I've recently been there with physibeth when she visited (and it was a lot less crowded then).

Not much has changed since two months ago. In fact, not much has changed since not one, but three (four?), years ago when I first visited. There are some things that should be kept constant — the memories, the remembrance, the reminder that September 11, 2001 was something we don't want to forget. I agree with this; I want to remember. That's why I went to Ground Zero today.

But this year is when I'm hearing insistent talks (as well as editorials in various papers) about the lack of moving on in terms of construction. One article in the Metro today details the editorialist's neighborhood: from his tiny apartment window, he's seen four high rises constructed over the past two years.

Four buildings in two years vs. still a stubble ground of debris six years later. See a discrepancy? When put side-by-side with private, for-profit construction, this timeline is right snail speed by comparison.

Today, I sensed the impatience in the air, in the conversations among people, and between the lines in various media outlets. I see this as a larger issue than mere grumbling about having a building not yet reconstructed. The impatience seems to be against a sort of stagnation people are feeling toward everything: war, the administration, the lagging stock market (though it jumped high today), etc.

Everyone seemed more tired today.

I wonder if, after the five-year mark, the remembrance is now in a "further along" stage of a more removed future. Don't get me wrong, people will remember and observe 9/11 for a long time to come (I still hold a vigil for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, 18 years later). It's just... after six years, I'm feeling that people want to see something done, want to know that things have become better at least in some tangible level -- like having a new building that signifies rebirth in a phoenix's out-of-the-ashes way.

I fleetingly wondered as I rounded the fences of the WTC site whether there were widows/widowers there visiting with their new spouses today; or the orphaned bringing along their new children in memory of a grandma or grandpa that little Johnny or Jane had never known.

Somehow, the sight of the familiar Burger King packed with hungry customers steadied me more than yet another glimpse of the WTC site did.


A WTC picture that I love, courtesy of Wish You Were Here