The Thursday (October 27th) of the Presidential Leadership Academy Fall Trip, I had stopped by the Media Technology at the Wagner Annex to pick up a professional Nikon camera to photograph New York City. I had been equipped technologically for what was to come; however, I had not been equipped emotionally for what was to come. I came to this realization on Saturday (October 29th) at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. As tradition, the Murray Family visits New York City every Winter Break to eat in Chinatown, watch a Broadway show, and take in all that The Big Apple has to offer! In December of 2015, we added another stop to our itinerary: the World Trade Center. We spent a couple of hours at the 9/11 Memorial and at the top of the adjacent Freedom Tower. The one other possible stop at the location of Ground Zero that was open at the time was the 9/11 Memorial Museum; however, the Murray Family agreed that that was another stop for another time.
That time was this past Saturday. I remember little of September 11th, 2001 – simply that it was a normal day in Kindergarten until my teacher announced unexpectedly that the school day would be finishing a bit earlier than usual. At that age, I could not have fathomed how unusual that day truly was; that being said, it should come as no surprise that my understanding of 9/11 and the terror that struck the hearts of the citizens of the United States of America nationwide was superficial. The guided tour of the 9/11 Memorial Museum was the watershed event that induced me to shed water from my eyes. I very much enjoyed the tour – and the tour guide’s ability to transport us back in time to that infamous day fifteen years ago. Afterwards, I stepped inside the Memorial Exhibition to hear the stories of the departed told by their loved ones. The wife of one individual recounted how their daughter – four years old at the time – remembers that her father would ask her “Who’s my girl?” and she would reply, “Casey-girl!”
I could not help myself – I bawled non-stop! Chris Murray is a best friend and a hero to me. The idea of losing him in a terrorist attack such as 9/11 is unfathomable to me. My reaction to the infamous event made me question my own beliefs. For Architecture and Planning Theories (ARCH 311w), I chose the following thesis: “post-9/11 New York City is the ground zero for mosques.” I firmly believed that this was the case; however, my visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum made me question this belief. “How would I feel if Chris Murray was a victim of the September 11th terrorist attacks and there were plans for a Muslim mosque around the corner?” Park 51, the case study for my thesis, is the mosque originally planned to be around the corner. Much controversy led to the outright rejection of Park 51. Below is a photograph of what is in its place … 45-51 Park Place is not sacred architecture. Did it ever deserve a place on sacred ground?
45-51 Park Place
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