The 9/11 Memorial Museum is slated to finally open in May. Already, controversy is breathing down its doors. Although relatives of victims and 'front line' workers during the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks will gain free admission, everyone else will have to pay $24 to pay their respects to the fallen of 11 September, 2001.
According to an article in the LA Times, the museum will feature some 10,300 artifacts, including portraits of the attack's "nearly 3,000 victims," a burned-out ambulance, and firefighter helmets of those who fought (and sometimes lost) to save those trapped in the Twin Tower wreckage.
Directors claim the admission is justified to meet the running costs of the museum, while others feel it is insulting to charge for entry to what is essentially a shrine.
Tickets to Broadway productions like the The Lion King can run anywhere upward of $100, argue organizers, who maintain the admission is reasonably priced.
Some have blamed exorbitant salaries paid to the board of directors as the reason driving the proposed entrance fees. The museum receives no federal funding toward its $63 million operating costs.
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