Three years ago this month my wife and I traveled to New York for her work. We stayed in a 100 year old hotel in Tribeca, just five blocks from the World Trade Center Memorial. We could see the new Freedom Tower from our room.
We got there on September 17th and missed the 9/11 memorial service. But walking through that memorial was humbling and emotional. No one at our hotel was old enough to have been working there that day but I know the hotel would have been engulfed in smoke and dust when the towers fell.
The memorial is simple yet screams volumes. The number of names on those edges is staggering. There were roses scattered about on the walls, no doubt left by people in remembrance of family members and/or friends who perished. There was a large police presence - many armed with M-16s. And it was surprisingly quiet.
For $30 per person you could go up to an observation deck that overlooks the remainder of the Trade Center sight. We decided we didn't want to pay that much to see destruction, opting to just take in the newness built from the rubble. And three years later that's still good enough for me.
I never would have believed it but I loved visiting New York. There was far more to our visit than the memorial but this week I'm thinking of that. May God comfort everyone who lost someone that day, whether in New York, Washington DC, or Shanksville, PA.
Many have forgotten. I'm not one of them.
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