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On November 18th, William Harris sent this message to support@twintowersalliance.com:
Now that the cement has been pored for the disastrous Freedom Tower, we need to ensure our victory by starting a day-long protest at Ground Zero and eventually making our way down the ramp, stalling construction so we can demand our Twin Towers be rebuilt. Then we should go up to Silverstein’s office in Midtown and remove him from the site. Finally, we can pay the workers at the site to abort the Freedom Tower construction and start breaking ground on the original footprints for new Twin Towers. We need to let all of the corporate giants running the site know that we won’t go down without a fight. The final decision for a mega-rally at the WTC is up to you guys and we should do it within the week before things get out of hand. We will win the fight and get a World Trade Center we can all appreciate.
Thank You,
William Harris
On November 5th, William Harris (email moniker: BillyMatt) signed the Twin Towers Alliance petition and left the following comment:
I am only 14 and live in Stamford, CT. I have fond memories of the Twin Towers and always thought they were the most beautiful buildings in New York. I was shocked, like everyone else about the events of 9/11. I lost my favorite buildings. From that day on, I knew they had to be rebuilt. The Freedom Tower is ugly and must not be built! If it’s built, it will showcase our failure. Let’s go with Trump’s idea and show the terrorists that the pheonix will rise from the ashes and they have lost!!!
Our November 18th response to William Harris:
Dear William,
When I first read your email I was concerned that someone, with the very best of intentions, was going to create a situation that would hurt, not help, our cause. But, because of the fervor of the message, the sincerity, the frustration, the obvious pain, I was going to write back to thank you and promise that we really do have a plan and that given time, we think it will work – and that we would reach out to you when the need arises.
Then I searched our signatures and found your original comment on the website and it brought tears to my eyes. William, this world is very lucky to have you in it. Maybe I am wrong, but my vision of most fourteen-year-olds on a Saturday afternoon is of kids with joysticks in their hands and/or ipod earphones in their heads. It is truly wonderful that not only do you care so much about this issue, but most importantly, you believe that we can do something about it. Don’t stop believing that, because it is true. You do not accept that this country belongs to a conglomerate of greedy, self-absorbed, unaccountable rulers of the little people and I hope you never will. The dividing line between being young and growing old is when might makes right, instead of the other way around.
But just because something is right or true doesn’t make it easy. This is, obviously, a tremendous challenge, but the fundamental principles give us hope. We have to be smart and careful, and that is what we believe we are doing. If you play chess you know that to win you have to plan multiple strategies, but they are all founded on knowing how the respective pieces are allowed to move. Our current strategy is simple: The WTC redevelopment has been engineered to satisfy special interests and the Governor and LMDC fraudulently mischaracterized the public’s role in the process. So we presented our case to our Attorney General, asking him to be our lawyer and get an injunction against further construction on the “Freedom Tower,” and we believe that the comments he has made and the facts that can’t be dismissed will make it hard for him to refuse.
You have probably heard the “Freedom Tower” referred to as the “Fraudem Tower” and it really is sickening to see how good people have been deceived. I read last night about how happy the people in Lynchburg, Virginia are to be contributing steel columns to the “Freedom Tower” and it made me so sad for them to think they are part of something noble when they are really part of something so shabby. Larry Silverstein has said that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will look back with pride at what we make of the World Trade Center. Maybe he believes it’s true. Perhaps he really did lose all memory of why he made his initial pledge to rebuild the Twin Towers. But he doesn’t have to imagine what future generations will think – he should just pick up a phone and speak with Billy Matt.
There are many reasons that people have for wanting the Twin Towers to rise again. And there are reasons why some people do not. But those competing reasons have never had a public airing. That is all we are after. That is all we have ever wanted. That is how things are done in a democracy. We are going to post your message on the website and use it in an outreach to journalists and bloggers. Millions of people want to see the Twin Towers back where they belong. Too many people care too much to be ignored and dismissed. Doing so shows nothing but disdain for the principles America was founded on. Ground Zero is currently a possession of the Crown – and King George Elmer I and his Star Council couldn’t care less what we think. But a letter like yours could be the spark to bring to light what really is happening here and what really matters.
If we had the money, we’d probably hire a p.r. firm so that we could be granted an audience by the press. But we’re rich in other ways, with people who care deeply, not for reasons of personal gain, but just of honor. We received an email when we started this campaign, comparing what we are doing to Tennyson’s Sir Galahad, who pulled the sword from the stone and said, “My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.”
No matter what they do, how much concrete they pour, how many steel columns they raise, the wrong plan for the wrong reasons can never be right.
With gratitude and respect for your resolve,
Margaret Donovan
for The Twin Towers Alliance
BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!
www.twintowersalliance.com
Because five years of the wrong plan for the wrong reasons is long enough!
