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Before going any further, our “leaders” should ask the people who elected them: “If it were up to you, what would the World Trade Center look like?” If they did that, then the ensuing discussion would bring about an honorable outcome. But they won’t ask because they are afraid they wouldn’t get the answer they want. What the public should be asking is why don’t they want what we want? We have a right to know. Now that the public has recovered its confidence, a clearheaded look at what we are doing is called for. Skyscrapers are breaking height barriers in cities like Chicago, Lower Manhattan real estate is booming, to put it mildly, and there is, fortunately, no significant infrastructure in place at the World Trade Center. What’s more, the existing plan finds a restaurant and observation deck at more or less the same height as the originals and the People’s Republic of China salivating over leases for the top floors of the so-called “Freedom Tower.” So, now that the insurance claims have been resolved, and before rushing ahead, officials have a duty to find out and pursue what the people really want – or else tell us why that doesn’t matter. But do not ignore our request, because the billions of federal taxpayer dollars already spent and the promise to prop up the “Freedom Tower” with federal leases makes this very much our concern. One compelling and revealing consideration that shouldn’t be overlooked is that images of the Twin Towers are woven into the fabric of New York. Murals of the Twin Towered skyline appear in diners, on the scoreboard at Shea Stadium, painted on the sides of buildings, they’re on trucks and awnings and logos all over the city – they are even pictured on vanity plates still being sold by the DMV! Will establishments be expected to destroy the existing images or paste the “Freedom Tower” over them? Most New Yorkers loved those Towers and aren’t going to be quick to remove them, the way they were airbrushed out of some movies by fickle Hollywood producers. Jokes that they were the boxes that the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building came in notwithstanding, even former detractors would give almost anything to have them back. The official logo at Ground Zero itself is of American flags draped across the Twin Towers! And the Memorial Foundation includes the Twin Towers in its logo. It is all so utterly bizarre. To draw attention to the schizophrenic, surreal quality of what is happening, the Twin Towers Alliance is holding a “Sidewalks of New York” contest to gather and display current images, with two Yankees-Red Sox tickets going to the person who snaps and sends in the most Twin Towers by July 31st. There’s still time to make officials see that the Towers can’t be airbrushed out of our hearts and that it would be an extraordinary affirmation of our spirit if those tributes all over the city became real instead of obsolete. It’s time to connect the dots! WHY are we doing what we’re doing? Can anyone explain? It has been said that the best way to tear down the terrorists is to rebuild the Towers. That logic escapes some, but most people get it. After all, burning Towers are the central icon on the altar of Islamic fascism. As one of the best comments left on the TTA website points out: “Nothing has rewarded the jihadists more than the ongoing sight of a world landmark wiped off the face of the earth.” In a telling corollary, soldiers in a monolithic army are at war with the very premise of duality and the whole concept of choice, which makes the symbolism of replacing two towers with one tower particularly chilling and the way it has been forced on the public shockingly inappropriate and unacceptable. There is a totalitarian movement on this earth that sees America as the Grand Prize. They haven’t got a chance of succeeding against us if the American people are empowered, but citizenship is the heart pump of this nation and it has to be exercised to be strong. Selectively obstructing the free flow of information from circulating through the land is a very dangerous practice.
© 2007 The Twin Towers Alliance |
