ryan,you might as well stop now, we all know your feelings on the matter, you are just being insulting now.
I too live in NYC and while I have my own feelings about this matter, I will not insult or push my ways of dealing with this down others throats.And ,yes,friends of mine died there too.

Wow -- I thought the lights were incredibly moving. Maybe not so much close up. I think you have to be somewhat away from the lights to get the effect -- this ephemeral, they're there, but not really there, feeling of what once was.

Maybe they had to be a part of your daily landscape to appreciate it.

I'm so tired of people claiming to come here to "pay their respects" to New Yorkers while gawking at the former WTC. If they were really concerned about the feelings of the victims they would listen to the overwhelming opinion that it is hurtful to have people staring into our open wound. Whenever they say, "well I'm going anyway" it shows that they are for more intersted in rubber-necking than actually respecting anyone.

After a life-changing traumatic event, which stage is anger, I'm wondering. That's where some of this is, right now. This debate is so irreconcilable ... it's about emotions ... nothing anybody says will change that, right now. I've witnesses a different reaction about the Pentagon ... not better, just different. There, many have complained about a lack of national attention, just the opposite of WTC. Many cite the numbers.

I personally witnessed the terrible events on the morning of Sept. 11th. I work for the Carpenters Union who lost 18 of it's members and I know of several other people who lost their lives. I was extremely touched by the overwhelming sympathy and help received by the rest of the country and the world. I would like to believe that the people who visit the WTC site are sincerely there to pay their respects, however, I have to admit that when I see tourists take out their cameras and aim it at their smiling companions it makes me wonder. I don't claim to know what their reasons are to visit the site, it's none of my business, I am only expressing my own feelings on the matter and I found their smiling faces to be insensitive and hurtful.

I would never critize anyone for visiting Pearl Harbor. Is it not the same in NYC? They are both gravesites.

Once again...the Pearl Harbor memorial and WTC site are completely different. The main difference is the passage of time. Tourists didn't visit Pearl Harbor until a memorial had been built years later.
It's not the same as whipping out your camera to take smiling photos of the family in front of an active recovery site where they are still pulling out bodies and body parts.

When there is a permanent WTC memorial, it will be a different story. Why does this distinction seem to elude so many people?

Maybe to people in other parts of the country this event has receded into the past more than it has here in NY. I live on Long Island. Do you realize that our local newspaper is STILL running bios of people killed EVERY DAY, as they have been doing for the past 7 months? It covers 2-3 pages of the daily paper, roughly 10 people per day. In addition, there is a daily list of the people confirmed dead the day before. There were 14 new names in yesterday's list.

This is not in the past. It is ongoing. People need to treat the site with more respect.