The Twin Towers Alliance is marking the first anniversary of its launch. Many of you must wonder what motivates some people to devote year after year of their lives to seeing the Twin Towers rise again. For many of us it is not a question of whether or not we can succeed. Although we do not see the restoration of America’s Skyline as an impossible dream, or even an improbable dream, we are well aware of the power of the vested interests we are up against. Still, what drives us is that we couldn’t live with ourselves if we turned our backs on the Towers and failed to try.

In the course of fighting this battle, we’ve learned a lot more than we ever wanted to know about how this country works – or, in this case, doesn’t work. But we have also learned firsthand how wonderful and caring and idealistic people can be. Every new signature signals that another unique individual, on an average of eleven times a day, every day for a year, has learned of the site, stopped what they were doing, ignored the noise in the media about all the “progress” at Ground Zero, and decided to join the struggle to rebuild the Twin Towers. The touching and powerful messages that people leave – and the words of encouragement sent to us out of the blue from all over the world – are remarkable and deeply inspiring.

So now, more than ever, the Twin Towers Alliance is dedicated to seeing this through…

— for each resident or tourist whose heart was ever stunned by a glorious sunset bouncing off the Towers and yearns to see them back where they belong;

— for the young people, the William Harrises and Justin Oves of this world, who care so much about rebuilding and understand why it matters;

— for the children, who need reassurance and proof that we will repair a bad world – not run from it;

— for all the people who never got around to going into those two simply amazing buildings and would love another chance;

— for those of us who were young when the Towers were young – they were part of our dream;

— for the victims of that day, as our best rebuke to the darkness that stole them from us;

— for the heroes of that day, in uniform and out, as the only fitting tribute to their valor;

— for the brave servicemen and women, who would be rewarded by the sight of Twin Towers reborn;

— for the politicians and policymakers, journalists and business leaders, who never looked at it this way before, but are willing to question their assumptions and search for answers before deciding what is best;

— and for every United States citizen – past, present, and future – and all our friends in other lands – to confirm that in America money and power can still be trumped by what is in the hearts of her people.