Open Thread: The 9/11 Museum Gift Shop and That Cheese Platter

By on May 30, 2014 9:47 pm in Brooklyn Heights, News

We were remaining silent about the controversy around the 9/11 museum and its gift shop as it’s been pretty well covered in the mainstream media. However that changed when we heard that the shop was selling a CHEESE PLATE with stars marking where the terrorists crashed their planes.

Considering the toll that terrible day took on our city, and Brooklyn Heights, what do you think of this latest issue as well as the museum and its gift shop?

Share this Story:

  • Ellie

    Who would even want to cut cheese on a board like that? In very poor taste. What a shame no common sense was used. Out with the gift shop!

  • Jorale-man

    It is worth remembering that the federal government wouldn’t chip in the needed funding – a $20 million bill to fund the museum was blocked by congress. So a gift shop is perhaps necessary to bring in operating revenue. It’s also worth noting that places like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the US Holocaust Museum also have gift shops – so this is nothing out of the ordinary. A cheese plate? A little tacky but the best thing to do is not buy it.

  • Joe A

    I think that a gift shop where the proceeds go to help fund the museum is not be inherently a bad idea. That being said, some common sense and sensitivity should be utilized in selecting what “gifts” are being offered for sale. A cheese platter does not pass that test.

  • Joe A

    Update: the gift shop has removed the cheese platter.

    Now, 9/11 memorial foundation president Joe Daniels told the Wall Street Journal that victims’ families would be consulted about what items are sold, “Once the public starts coming in, you learn so much. We in no way presume to get everything right. We will accept that criticism, absolutely.”

    http://gothamist.com/2014/05/29/911_museum_removes_911_cheese_plate.php

    I think eventually they will get the right balance.

  • Klezmer O’Brien

    I’m not offended by the idea of the gift shop.

    I think I want to buy a 9/11 cheese platter just to prove it ever existed. Sometimes things are in such profoundly bad taste that you have to see it to believe it’s true. It would be even better if it had a “9/11 Museum limited edition” sticker on the bottom.

    I see that the foundation president has now removed the cheese platter because the public told him it was in bad taste. You would think, as President of the 9/11 Museum Foundation, that he might already have some…sensitivity…to the subject matter…

  • iloveaha

    This is what happens when you wait too long to set up a memorial. I’ll never understand why this took so long. Now as we get farther away from those events a certain indifference has set in. Had this memorial been established in the 1 to 2 years following the attacks there would not have been the crassness that we see now. I think once we hit the 5 year mark the idea of a memorial should have been scrapped all together. It was obvious the U.S government didn’t want one and allowed the whole issue to be tied up in conflict for years hoping survivors would give up on the idea and I think maybe that would have been for the best honestly. The remains should have been moved and installed in a tasteful mausoleum on holy ground off site. Its too late to do right by the victims and entombing them in a place that charges admission and hosts parties for the rich and powerful just shows how little their lives are regarded. The time to honour our victims is long passed. That ship sailed a long time ago and now were left with what amounts to a macabre amusement park of sorts which holds very little meaning for young people today and insults the pain of those of us who remember those days all too well.

  • Andrew Porter

    Wonder if Pacific Historic Parks had a heckuva time making sure they didn’t sell any trinkets made in Japan…

  • Andrew Porter

    Eew, winner of the Really Bad Taste award [puns intended]!

    I’m curious how many BH residents, like me, have absolutely no intention of going to 9/11 Museum?

  • Heightsman

    Sure beats the 9/11 LEGO Set they have….

  • Boerum Bill

    How about plastic-encased bits of wall plaster where Bin Laden met his demise?!

  • Boerum Bill

    That’s some seriously morbid Morbier! How about plastic-encased bits of wall plaster where Bin Laden met his demise?!