A Visit to the WTC Site

I was recently in New York again, and unlike past trips I could no longer find excuses not to make the trek down to the site of the World Trade Center. It certainly wasn't too cold. There were no time considerations.

Perhaps most likely, I was ready to stop avoiding the experience.

The very first thing that struck me is how amazingly small the location is. Somehow, from watching things on television it seems that it should be so much bigger. Visiting many national landmarks in my travels, I've discovered this is more common than not.

The next thing that struck me was how clean, almost sterile, the fencing and sidewalks around the site is. It is somehow unexpected, and entirely appropriate. Totally expected, and far less appropriate, are the tourists in their t-shirts and flip-flops chattering with each other about the hole in the ground. Also sadly anticipated were the merchants with their tables full of shirts, hats, and other patriotic trinkets struggling to extract a buck from tragedy.

The site itself had almost a cathedral quality for me, though more in the sense of the cathedrals of Europe that are all to often overrun with tourists. Ignoring the sideshow, the importance of the place is impossible to miss.

Damage to surrounding buildings is still all too evident. On the south side, plywood walls have been erected. They are painted black, with the warning to "POST NO BILLS" painted upon them in stark white. Unlike most other flat surfaces throughout the city on which this notice is posted, at the WTC site the signs are for the most part obeyed.

In several locations, visitors have scrawled messages of hope and encouragement on the white paint. It is obvious that the paint on these walls is renewed regularly, and these messages will likely be obliterated fairly soon. Without meaning any disrespect to the authors or the sincerity of their impulse to write, in most cases the erasure of these missives will be no great loss.

One particularly poignant message caught my eye though, and I can hope that through some small miracle it will manage to survive.

Written in blue ballpoint pen from the top left to bottom right of the white letter "N" the message reads simply:

"Daddy I miss you."