I normally try to avoid national politics, because they are about the only thing more divisive than Davenport politics lately. They are also probably more likely to get me in trouble later in my life, because I write this blog with the full understanding that every position I take has the possibility of being brought up years down the road. That said... I'll now make a rare exception.
One of the biggest tragedies of 9/11 to me personally is that we are accepting defeat in that battle. We're taking the attitude of, "they won this time, but we will prevail in the long run." I truly believe we will prevail in the long run, but I don't see why we have to let them leave a hole in NYC. Instead of rebuilding the World Trade Center, we are building an enormous monument to terrorism. Instead of putting back what terrorists tried to destroy, we are leaving it destroyed.
If terrorists had knocked down the White House, the Capitol, the Statue of Liberty, or other Washington monuments, I would like to think we would rebuild them just as they were. Why, then, are we throwing in the towel on the Twin Towers? What makes a better statement then having the World Trade Center rebuilt stronger than before, so potential terrorists will see that NYC has been restored to the way it was before September 11th? It would show them the futility of the mission to destroy the United States through murdering civilians. The hijackers would still be dead, and the towers would stand again over New York.
Instead we're building an ugly spire, and leaving 2 empty sockets in the ground of NY and calling them memorials. They will be a perfect place for future terrorists-in-training to come and see what their kind have done before. Imagine them instead coming to the site and seeing it looking essentially the same as it did on September 10th? If I had been killed working or visiting a national symbol, I would most certainly want it rebuilt. Replacing what was lost gives a big "F You" to terrorists everywhere.
In fact, I have come up with 2 rules I'd like to leave behind in the exceedingly unlikely chance that I'm ever killed in a terrorist attack.
#1. Don't use my death as justification to kill anyone not directly involved in my death. I'm not going to get into this one.
#2. Rebuild. I don't care if I was killed by terrorists in the Statue of Liberty, the Sears Tower, or a Kwik Shop in Davenport, Iowa. Build it back the way it was, and find another way to memorialize the people lost besides leaving a gaping hole.
More info can be found on rebuilding at makenynyagain.com
2 comments:
You're exactly right. We shouldn't just rebuild the twin towers, the new towers should be BETTER than the old ones. They could look nearly identical from the outside, but they should have all the latest safety features and bells and whistles that more modern skyscrapers have. I really hope they don't build the spire.
QCI and Pioneer88,
As someone who witnessed the collapse thru a picture window of a building and not thru a picture tube of a tv I have a different viewpoint. The rebuilding process of the 16 acre site has gone thru TREMENDOUS public review. There is also a myriad of legal and logistic issues involving two states. I believe that the current plan is the best from a large group of contenders.
To me the attack wasn't about what happened on that near perfect fall morning but what the citizens of NYC did in the following weeks. We rose up and showed our humanity and compassion (yes New Yorkers have both those qualities).
The best memory of the attack happened weeks later when the subway lines that ran just east of the site were reopened. As the train crept thru the closed stop next to (and now below some of the debris) the Trade Center site we saw the ceiling was reinforced to prevent a collapse. Billboards were hawking movies that would be opening the week of the attack. Then the realizaton that there were people working overhead trying to find the remains of the missing. Saying a quick prayer and then looking up and knowing that the other 100 occupants were also praying in a variety of languages in several different flavors of religion.
That is what NYC is about to me and that is what the memorial -to me- represents.
Post a Comment