National Disgrace: 9/11 Museum to charge $24 admission to fund “bloated salaries for stuffed suits and fat cats at Ground Zero”
Joe Daniels, President and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, has announced a $24 mandatory admission fee for the 9/11 Memorial.
It’s a museum, not a movie. It’s a memorial, not a theme park.
What do they charge at Gettysburg? Pearl Harbor?
It’s blood money.
Salaries at the “non-profit” 9/11 Memorial and Museum are obscene. This allegedly non-profit organization is supposed to be a tribute to 9/11 victims. “It was built to tell the story of 9/11 to future generations about the worst day in American history. It was never intended to be a revenue-generating tourist attraction with a prohibitive budget and entrance fee.”
Foundation President Joseph Daniels, 38, pocketed $371,307 after receiving hefty raises three years in a row. 11 staffers at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum each pulled down more than $170,000 in total compensation in 2009 alone. Four execs took home more than $320,000.
And what did they do with the billion dollars it took to build this underground museum morgue? There is nothing in the Memorial and Museum that addresses the ideology behind the attack.
AFDI held a press conference on September 11th to protest this outrage here. Video and photos here, complete coverage here.
I spoke with Nelly Braginsky earlier today, and she said, “the museum must be free. Families cannot afford $24. They should be able to see what happened to their country.” Travel and parking tolls are exorbitant. Who can spend that kind of money? Braginsky railed, “Why do they need 64 people to run the museum? At what salary? How many people are working? What are they doing all day? Where is the money? Five people would be enough. The salaries are enormous. Why not have students intern at the museum?”
Then there is all this talk about 9/11 being a “day of service” instead of a day of grieving. That, too, was contemptuous of our pain and loss. Why not make the museum a “service” institution, and students from across the country can volunteer their time and energy to man it? Instead, the left pays themselves enormous salaries, removes motive from the attack on our country, and demands that September 11th be about “service.”
Valentina Lygina, whose son Alexander was working in the second tower on the 74th floor when he was murdered on 9/11, echoed Braginsky’s outrage.
Sally Regenhard, who lost her only son, firefighter Christian, called the admission fee of $24 at the 9/11 Museum a disgrace, and said it was “designed to maintain bloated salaries for stuffed suits and fat cats at Ground Zero.”
9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims strongly disagrees with charging a large admission fee, and also disagrees with expecting federal, state and local governments to pay the tab with no fiscal restraints, while 9/11 Memorial Museum executives give themselves plush raises every year, along with large expense accounts.
“The current executives at the 9/11MM have outrageous six figure salaries, some over $400 thousand dollars per year, They have also announced a $63 million dollar bloated annual budget.This is totally out of control! A mandatory $24 dollar admission fee will just serve the purpose of helping to pay these huge salaries and ensure that the “tale of two cities” will continue, as the rich will visit the museum, but the poor and middle class families won’t be able to afford it. Unfortunately, there is no fiscal responsibility or accountability at this site.”
A billion-dollar memorial to the September 11th attacks on the homeland, and it censors the motive. There is nothing in the Memorial and Museum that addresses the ideology behind the attack. No jihad or Islam. Devastating.
Dutch blogger Matthys van Raalten wrote here:
The memorial park and memorial museum in New York for the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 are a disgrace. Let me explain why.
In the park, you can walk around and see only one American flag. That’s as if the architects of the park are ashamed of being American. Then the museum: if you want to properly pay tribute to the victims, you have to visit the museum as well, for the remains of unidentified victims have all been located here. So to mourn for these innocents, you have to pay!
The museum is build below the park, which isn’t very heartwarming. Why can’t such a place be build at street-level?
The worst thing is that once you are inside the museum, you will see that the pictures of the attackers are more prominently displayed than the pictures of some of the victims. Also, the museum does not explain properly to the visitors that the attacks were committed in the name of Jihad, or islamic “Holy War” against the West.
This leads one to think: do the organizers of the museum want to pay tribute to the attackers, or what?
In Jerusalem, there is a much more honorable memorial for the victims of 9/11. Located on a terrace on a hill with a beautiful view of the surrounding area, it’s a bronze sculpture, that is like a burning American flag. Symbolism and patriotism in one. Solemn, but not cold.
“Haunting exhibits recalling the grief and terror of 9/11 unveiled at new World Trade Center site museum before it opens in May,” The Daily Mail, February 1, 2014
Some of the haunting exhibits that will make up the National 9/11 Museum in a giant cavern beneath the World Trade Center site have been unveiled before it opens in mid-May.
The heartbreaking items include a scorched ambulance, destroyed payphones, abandoned fire and rescue helmets, and bikes that have never been picked up that remained locked to their racks.
But after the opening was delayed by years due to funding disputes, engineering challenges and a nearly disastrous flood, there was controversy over the ticket price of $24 announced last Friday.
National 9/11 Memorial and Museum President Joe Daniels said that tickets would go on sale for the museum in March for the spring opening.
That $24 price is in line with other major tourist attractions in New York City.
It costs $18 to take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, $25 to see the Museum of Modern Art and $27 to visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
But the fee drew protests from critics, including some relatives of 9/11 victims, who said the high price would keep average Americans out.
Unlike many other big museums in the city, there won’t be the option of paying less than the ‘suggested donation.’
Under the pricing plan approved by the foundation’s board, there will be no admission charge for relatives of 9/11 victims or for many thousands of construction workers, police officers, firefighters, and others who assisted in the rescue and cleanup operation at ground zero.
Children under age 5 and under will also get in free. Admission will also be free for everyone between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
There will continue to be no charge to enter the World Trade Center memorial plaza, which is already open.
The foundation set an annual budget Thursday of $63 million to operate the museum and plaza. As of now, all of that money will have to come from admissions fees and private donations.
Some 9/11 families have been critical of the foundation, saying the steep ticket charge is a disgrace.’It was never intended to be a revenue-generating tourist attraction with a prohibitive budget and entrance fee,’ they said in a statement’The only way to do that is to be financially responsible,’ he said.
Daniels said he didn’t think the price was excessive, though he acknowledged that ‘it’s not an inexpensive trip for a family to come here.’
He said that if federal, state or city funding does emerge, the foundation would consider lowering the entrance fee.
Planners had originally hoped that the museum could open on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Construction delays were exacerbated by a funding dispute with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that stopped all work for nearly a year, and by severe flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy.
Harold
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