Among the museum shop’s specially designed items:
• A black and white “Darkness Hoodie” printed with an image of the Twin Towers. The pullover, like other “Darkness” items, bears the words “In Darkness We Shine Brightest.” Price: $39.
• Silk scarves printed with 1986 photos by Paula Barr, including a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline. Another depicts “lunchtime on the WTC Plaza.” They go for $95 each.
• ”Survivor Tree” earrings, named after a pear tree that stood in the World Trade Center plaza and survived 9/11. Made of bronze and freshwater pearls, a pair costs $64. A leaf ornament molded from the swamp white oaks at the memorial is said to change from amber to dark brown “and sometimes pink around the time of the 9/11 anniversary.”
• Heart-shaped rocks inscribed with slogans such as “United in Hope” and “Honor.” One rock bears a quote by Virgil that is emblazoned on a massive blue-tiled wall in the museum: “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” It costs $39.
I could see a bookstore existing without much controversy. It’s the schmaltz that’s offensive. A silk scarf, really? That’s how you want to remember your visit to Ground Zero?
Rebuilding on the site in the first place was supposed to reflect how we as Americans see ourselves on our best days, resilient, unbowed, industrious, but it’s important to keep in mind what the towers symbolized in the first place. It’s the reason they were attacked, after all, the vast monoliths of grand American capitalism. What better way to memorialize that than by a store that sells useless, over-priced bobbles [sic] to people with too much disposable income, who have no need for, or really any idea why they’d want to buy any of it in the first place? Forget a tower, that right there is the American dream writ large.
Plus this horseshit has been out there for a while. At least this is officially part of the museum.
A.