I live six blocks away from where the World Trade Center used to be. There’s one thing people never fail to ask when they find out I’m from downtown Manhattan, and yes, the towers went down before my eyes. Like thousands of others in the surrounding area on September 11, 2001, I was there, and I saw it. It’s one of those things you really will never forget—no need to buy a bumper sticker or wear a ribbon.

Whenever I go home for the holidays, I’m confronted with tourists who will also never forget, but in different ways. There were the ones who listened to Mayor Rudy G (“America’s Mayor”) back in the day when he said something along the lines of “Come to New York, revive our economy!” They came, they cried, they clicked. They who will never forget what they saw on TV, and have the photos to prove it. A few of these modern-day pilgrims probably knew one of the over 3,000 unfortunate people whose lives ended that day. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that most of the WTC tourists just want to see a piece of history. To these folks, seeing the giant hole in the ground/construction site is on par with a visit to Washington D.C. In their vacation photo albums—the poses would all be the same.

I try to avoid walking by the WTC site simply to avoid the swarms of visitors smiling for photos. They piss me off even more than the street vendors with their tables full of plastic bricks with light-up Twin Towers inside, and their stacks of glossy TERROR! photo booklets with the buildings burning on the cover. Idiot tourists are the only ones who would ever buy something like that. Who really needs a Ground Zero sweatband?

Next to taking photos, buying worthless crap seems to be the most common way of remembering a time and place. When you visit a museum or a landmark, you exit through the gift shop. It’s the same with national holidays, but on a larger scale. Instead of having a gift shop for Veterans Day, we have sales of up to 70 percent off at Macy’s. Why is this how we remember our fallen soldiers? Since when does “Support the Troops” mean “Buy a new sofa?” This is why September 11 should never become a national holiday. We don’t really care about the history of these national holidays; we care that we have a three-day weekend and nationwide sales. The original meaning of the holiday is forgotten, and moments of silence are immediately followed by pie-eating contests and shopping excursions. Government officials make speeches centered around the phrase “Never forget,” but the only thing most people in America remember about September 11 is a shocking video clip.

We all seem to agree that the events of September 11 have forever altered the way we live. But how has September 11 changed us? There’s the Iraq war, the Patriot Act, increased security across the board, and the list goes on. But do all these things really protect us? On September 11, 2001, my high school, Stuyvesant, a few blocks away from the Towers, had to evacuate. Surprisingly, there was no mass stampede; no one was pushing or running at full speed away from the cloud of debris. We walked North on the West Side Highway footpath in a calm and orderly manner. The school itself was used as a base for rescue and recovery workers. When we were finally allowed back into Stuyvesant, the rent-a-cops beefed up the school’s security by not allowing students to go outside on their free periods. That makes sense, right? If we’re in the building, nothing bad can happen—the 1950s duck-and-cover theory. It seems all our security measures amount to the equivalent of hiding under our desks. Remember all those Justice Department laptops and weapons that went missing? Doesn’t that make you feel safe? More recently, there was a breach in airline security—mostly depicted by our media as merely a funny accident. If a man can hide a marmoset under his hat all the way from Lima, Peru, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and only be caught when the monkey peeped on his flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York, how effective is all this so-called security?

In the long run, how will September 11 be remembered? A group of students in my high school, led by English teacher and faculty advisor Annie Thoms, interviewed different people about their experiences on 9/11, compiling these interviews into a monologue-based play called With Their Eyes. Since the play’s publication, high schools and theater companies have performed it across the nation. Following 2001, Americans have honored the tragedy’s victims and fallen soldiers in many ways: with candlelight vigils, anniversary-issue magazine covers, and memorial websites. This September 11, the University at Buffalo is holding a safety fair, during which they will demonstrate what could happen if you leave one little candle burning in your room—the whole thing can go up in flames.