There is no more perfect visual shorthand for the ideal of “United We Stand” than the Twin Towers. They were the first commercial buildings anywhere, ever, that were dedicated, from their inception, to world peace! The Twin Towers form incorporates the concept of solidarity. Their architectural DNA embodies the code of cooperation and reconciliation — principles that can transform an us-against-them world into one of fellowship between men and women, liberals and conservatives, blacks and whites, east and west, believers and non-believers.

The Twin Towers were about thinking GREAT thoughts, inspiring GREAT dreams, overcoming GREAT odds. They were not just buildings and therefore cannot be replaced with just buildings. When they are reborn, they will be dedicated once more to world peace and will symbolize the inevitable triumph of right over might — even if it takes awhile. That is why we hope that their economy of construction and purity of form will spring up all over the country — and around the world — as the ultimate rebuke to the hateful totalitarian spirit that destroyed them on 9/11.

People who feel that New York has an exclusive claim to them are missing the significance of the Twin Towers. They were New York landmarks, American icons, and universal symbols. And for the last eight years they have belonged to everyone who upholds the right of freedom-loving people everywhere to respectfully pursue happiness as they see fit.

Ken Gardner’s decision to promote a “Renaissance World Trade Center” across the Hudson River in no way prevents people from clamoring for the Twin Towers at Ground Zero. How appropriate that would be if the way we finally respond to 9/11 is to come back twice as strong. It really is up to the people. When politicans “feel the heat,” they “see the light,” but the media’s lock on the story has undermined the public’s response. They can’t object to what they are not told… That is a challenge to overcome, not a barrier to accept.

The video by college student and Twin Towers devotee William Justice perfectly captures The Spirit of September 12th – the magnanimous spirit that enfolded and empowered our nation after the 9/11 attacks. That was the closest most of us have ever come to experiencing the powerful unity that George Washington urged us to cherish and protect in his Farewell Address excerpted below. The 18th-Century language is hard to understand at first, but the intensity of his desire to give us a country we could hold on to is impossible to miss. From 213 years ago, it is imploring us to draw on our reserves of good will at all times, not only when tragedy brings us together. That’s the least we can do in return for all we’ve been given.