And you're welcome to your opinion, with which some of us disagree :-)

For the record, NYCtoCA, all of lower Manhattan is not closed to everyone but family members on 9/11. Members of the general public can, and do, "attend" the memorial service. They may not, however, enter the area reserved for survivors and family members. I believe that has already been made clear.

In the past, when the service was held in the pit, members of the public could stand on the streets above. A friend of mine who did not lose anyone in the attacks but who works in the area and was deeply affected by the events of that day, has "attended" with her teenage son every single year. They are members of the general public.

People stand as far away as Broadway. They may not see the service, but they are "in attendance", as members of the public. They go to pay their respects.

You mention that you were offended by this thread. Frankly, I find it offensive that you make assumptions about people's motives for wanting to be there without having any basis for such assumptions.

I also agree with Icuy.

Had not seen this thread when first posted and learned alot. I no longer work for AT&T and wasn't in area when WTC fell 10 yrs ago ..... but remember a former coworker who does live in northeast, and lost his wife in the attack. G-bless L. Snik.

I confirm I do not suffer of post-traumatic stress syndrome and have no need to tell someone that I was there. I just felt emotionally very involved into this event and feel a kind of deep need to be a member of the general public who attend this memorial service, as panecott says.
No doubts that relatives of the killed have and will always have the first priority to be there and this is the reason why they have dedicated areas. As far as I can understand this year there are more and more people than in the past years. Reasons have been given here, thanks. This also mean that being the number of the relatives more or less the same every year, the additional people this year should be therefore general public and among the general public I would not feel uninvited, intruder or that I belong there less than others. The fact that Obama and Bush are there with additional logistic restrictions and more crowd, probably made of just general public, and the fact that the memorial and museum have no more visitor passes available on my dates helped me to take the decision to follow some of your suggestions and to avoid that area on that day and to come on another trip and day, but honestly these are the only two reasons. Again, thank you very much to all of you.