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" http://news.yahoo.com/vegas-casino-expansion-pushes-9-11-memorial-180753775.html "

 

     Heck of a title huh?  Remember that day?  No - not 9/11; I mean the day the MGM Grand Casino (MGM Resorts International)  had the Memorial that somehow "spontaneously" appeared in the days after the 9/11 deaths - their words, not mine - bulldozed to make way for a 100 MILLION Dollar expansion to the Casino ...to generate more profits.  Seems a good many nickels and quarters already went down their slots huh?

 

     During the more than a decade of the Memorial's presence, somehow it grew and grew and soon became a real and formal place where remembrances were left, silent prayers offered, the odd tear or ten shed.  It became real enough that displays of First Responders T-shirts were rotated in from all over the country.  Plaques, names, displays ...T-shirts, notes, signatures... memories, ghosts - all bulldozed.  Dreams and memories made into more nothings - pushed aside and trucked away to fill another landfill - all for the grasping greed of a cheap, soulless, corporate-run facility.  Seems that from the very beginning the Memorial was likely permitted its existence just to serve as a shill for the Casino and not because it was really established for any sense of public compassion and decency.  But hell, it grew and became real, so what else COULD they do but destroy it? 

 

     Ever wonder how a city or state or even the Federal Government can take YOUR house and YOUR lot for an oil or gas pipeline or a highway overpass or ramp or as a vacant lot or anything else they seem to want ...even a Memorial.  They (the title most attach to an elusive, reclusive, nameless, faceless, and more than often - soulless representative of the Powers-That-Be) call such actions that "TAKE" - as being for the public good.  Seems Las Vegas City government (or should I say MANAGEMENT) didn't care enough to use its powers for the public ...good.  Not even for an itty-bitty two-bit memorial whose presence must have required vast reconsiderations to be taken in the architecture and design of the add-on structure - no wait the add-on is to be the renovation of the Promenade IN FRONT of the facility.  Oh, so then what is going there?  Quote, "MGM is in the process of transforming the congested sidewalks in front of its New York City and European-themed casinos into an outdoor plaza featuring trees, benches, food trucks and shops. The new promenade is intended to recall Madison Square Park."  So there IS no place in a New York City themed PARK for the 9/11 Memorial that remembered the selflessness of so very many ...people... running INTO where thousands literally never walked out from. 

 

    Yeah, it's a shame; but, what IS so horrendous is that there wasn't even a place set aside beforehand to move and re-establish the Memorial, they just "stored"? the artifacts, plaques, sundries ...residue of so many visits and thoughts, somewhere "on the property" (so they say) and then poofed the place away.  People from all across the country, the world ...used to pause... looking, thinking, and some even shared moments and memories.  Others looked over the remembrances displayed and still others actually left new ones for future visitors to see and understand the depth of caring that THIS memorial came to represent.  A real Memorial to the bravery and the cost ...so selflessly risked and given by so many that lost their lives doing what wasn't after all - just a job.  Responders risk everything each time they help us, each and every one of US ...and these souls risked and gave it all, freely, selflessly.

 

    It was a pretty nice "impromptu" memorial:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/vegas-casino-expansion-pushes-9-11-memorial-180753775.html

 

The link gives a few pictures of the what became nothing ...all to the shame of MGM's GREED for shops and food trucks?!?

 

      A 100 Million dollar expansion  - paid for by slot machine nickels and quarters, paid for by the relatives and each friend of each person who was somehow so deeply affected by the events our entire nation was forced to witness day-after-horrid-day-after-month-after-year.   The death of innocents, the laughter and joy of the guilty... the years since of unending war and destruction and the continuing loss of a generation of our kids facing the darkest moments in their lives with guts and the urge to help as only THEY can. I'm angry and so are so many, and we ...WE... as a people continue to seek and mete justice and yes - for some - it's even revenge.  Memorials give a chance to heal, to remember, to pause and think.

 

     I think it's time people stopped going to the MGM Grand - EVER.  They don't care about even the SEMBLANCE of the themes they hide their GREED within.   They don't care - they don't have to, and it's ok.  IT IS ALLOWED ...BUT, we don't have to care - about THEM either, now do we?  There ARE so many, many other NICE and alluring and really great places to go to and pull slot handles and eat GREAT buffets and see FANTASTIC shows and stay in rooms that have OTHER ...more honest views - don't you think?

 

There is a soulless

callous, careless

way of being

and it lessens each of us

as it takes away -

all the feeling

all the heart,

all the meaning

each bit of all we are.

 

And we aren't perfect -

can't be,

won't be

hell, will NEVER be...

perfect

but damn

comes a time when

just once

just friking once

when you NEED to do right

by someone that can't

ever

DO

anything    again

...just because they paid it forward

when they could...

ya know?

 

Chris

 

 

 

Author's Note

This isn't about Grammar or building a better box. Comment AFTER reading the article but please THINK it through first.

Reviews

[lee von cleef]

Responsibility, Respectability,Reasoning.....
To our selves, Lost ourselves , we were so small ...
Found, now grown ... Built bigger then just me, by more then me...
Owned now by all ....the weight of ....
Responsibility, Respectability, Reasoning is so much brighter.....

[Ruth]

And such things weigh the heart when thinking on those who are no longer able to voice...wow...what do we do with our collective voices? Mostly waste them...except here xx

[Leslie Philibert]

I like work very much that looks at real issues, politics,real people, real events. There is too much much poetry that is purely confessional, just about broken hearts or love affairs. This tackles a big subject, if I understand it correctly ( and I understand little about US issues) plans to build a hotel on the site of a 9/11 memorial or instead of it. You are right. To honour the people killed must be more important than letting people lose their money. A fine write.

[Chris]

To build more gambling room wasn't their reason... The casino didn't change. The sidewalk in front of it is what they cleared. And their why was - for the intent of shops - souvenirs? trinkets? mementoes? clothing? maybe a pawn shop too?
and food trucks - tacos? burgers? fries? hot dogs? brats? and that money goes to - the Casino. And there is to be trees, and benches to sit at, and supposedly other(?) park stuff - its all to relieve the congestion of the foot traffic?

Immediately after 9/11, people that couldn't get to New York would pause and leave something beneath the simulated NY City skyline of the MGM. It was an emotional release true; BUT, they (MGM) allowed it, recognized and used it. The Memorial ...a remembrance of the fallen. Then they grew it, gave it a permanence, maintained it, made it real. They dealt with other states and even the State University - arranged for rotating exhibits as well as additional displays. And then for a hot dog, fries and a beer and a bagged china made Statue of Liberty they poofed it.

They didn't even have the decency to find a place and move it first... they grabbed displays and plaques and put them who really knows where... and bulldozed the site clear. Like I said, who really needs to go to ANY MGM Resort International facility (anywhere at all) when their are so many other establishments that do observe the spirit of what their facility's theme is.

Chris

[Chris]

I misspelled there in the last sentence ...sorry.

[sharonlee]

Its a sad day when gambling takes precedence over love life and honor.

[Renée]

Vegas..the city known for over the top excess...I was there this last 4th of july for a wedding..it isn't my kind of place..and i did not know about the memorial or I would have gone to see it...
if it was only owned by a family ..they might reconsider what they are doing..but it is a Huge cooperation with many holdings in Vegas and around the world and disconnected from real people...we will have to trust they do the right thing in building a new memorial or perhaps they will send the articles to NY to be added to the memorial at ground zero..as long as they treat the items with respect..I think it will be ok..

[J. J. Nightingale]

Yet another EVENT to grieve over .. no foreign power .. merely domestic greed...................


Me.