Being born and raised in New York, I am quite familiar with the area in America that after 9/11 became known as “ground zero”. The towers that stood on ground zero were a part of the everyday landscape of my life.
I worked in them and in their shadow. Having an office, for a time, across from the City Hall, just mere blocks away from the towers, a great deal of my activity and day was influenced by the towers. It was a hub of activity for me and many New Yorkers.
None of this makes my relationship to the World Trade Center any closer than anyone else, but it does account for some of my passion surrounding the events of 9/11. The fact is, that after the events of 9/11, many Americans feel a connection to the towers. They were once a symbol of America but now they have become a symbol for Americans. The collapse of those towers represents the most tragic act of terrorism ever committed against us. The recovery from their collapse represents our enduring spirit and inherent American vitality.
Part of our demonstrated resiliency and defiance in the face of threats is the reconstruction of a new World Trade Center.
For New Yorkers it is quite an important step. Not only does it have incredibly positive financial and economic ramifications, it has an intrinsic symbolic value with infinitesimal meaning.
The reconstruction of the new WTC is a symbol and tribute to emergency workers, paramedics, policemen, firemen, construction workers, doctors, nurses, and everyone else who ran toward the crumbling towers on that fateful day in an attempt to save lives.
It is a symbol to the tens of thousands who ran away from the towers as they were falling, in order to save their own lives. It is also a symbol for those who did not make it and to the loved ones they left behind.
The reconstructed World Trade Center will be a symbol for all Americans.
As such, the new center was to bear a name befitting of such an iconic creation.
It was going to be named The Freedom Tower.
The name threatened no sensitivities or faiths, It did not defy any bounds of decency or politically correct dictums.
The name reflected a concept truly important to Americans, one that was under attack when the original towers came crashing down.
It was a perfect name for a potential center of the free market in America and the world.
But nothing is perfect and as such, the controlling authority of the new tower, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has determined that the name “Freedom Tower” will be dropped.
The Port Authority claims that their reason for scrapping that name is a business decision based on the fact that some potential foreign tenants of the tower are turned off by the name. Port Authority officials claim that changing the name from Freedom Tower back to World Trade Center will make it easier to market.
For me, the decision to turn their back on the symbolic importance of the towers name, is an offense to us all. Especially to those directly affected by the events of 9/11.
It raises the question....what type of potential international tenants of the complex are offended by the name “Freedom Tower”? Is the Port Authority planning on renting office space in the new WTC to the Taliban?
The decision to back down from the name Freedom Tower, on a project that has so much symbolic value to our nation's recovery from terrorism and our continued plight for freedom in the world, is a travesty of insurmountable proportions. The rejection of the name and the reasoning behind the rejection is repulsive.
It does not help to properly define a post 9/11 era . It does not help to honor the thousands who died when freedom was attacked on 9/11.......the thousands who will be memorialized where they died, right on the remaining foot print of both old towers.
By refusing to call the new tower, the Freedom Tower, we are not demonstrating our own commitment to the cause of freedom. What we are doing is demonstrating that we will compromise our freedoms to suit the desires of others.
Well I do not want to suit the needs of people who have a problem with freedom. Whether they are foreigners or domestic dolts, I do not want to promote or support their antithetical views regarding freedom.
Freedom is the foundation of our very nation. Or at least it is suppose to be.
Yet here we are. We have a committee of Americans appointed by the American governors of New York and New Jersey. They were entrusted with the responsibility of operating America's Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and they refuse to stand by the name of the principle most important to America.........freedom.
Is there any wonder why we are where we are today?
God bless America. Now more than ever!
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We should have just rebuilt the same building again. And kept the name not that Freedom Tower offends me but that in simply rebuilding it would be a bigger Fu to the terrorists.
If the name "Freedom Tower" offends some My question is why?I would be willing to bet it's a Muslem organization.
Smashey…..I usually agree with your conclusions and, at one point in time, I may have had the same sentiment that you do on this issue. However, now that the name is being changed because of opposition to the word "Freedom" it has become an issue. Now it is a point to deal with. I disagree with your assessment that essentially comes down, the name is unimportant. If names have no importance or meaning why than should we have names at all? I do agree with the fact that the lives lost must be memorialized properly and the will. After much discussion and thought, the plans are set. Now the question is, what will we call the structure that will be shaped around that memorial? It was set to be called the Freedom Tower. My saw that as an appropriate, inoffensive name. Now it has been determined that it is inappropriate. The fact that a structure housing the memorial to thousands who died when freedom was attacked, can't be called the Freedom Tower because that offends some, is a problem.
I agree Smashey.
I don't have a preference for either name. I just wish they would quit the bickering and either build a monument to those lost or leave it alone. It is sad that we can't even agree on how to honor our own.
"This has NOTHING to do with Pearl Harbor, and EVERYTHING to do with "Freedom Fries" - from LC, born and raised in NY "
Quoted for truth.
This has NOTHING to do with Pearl Harbor, and EVERYTHING to do with "Freedom Fries" - from LC, born and raised in NY
Well MM, that is why the greatest generation holds that title. Current generations, including my own, are too willing to ignore the realities that have delivered us to this present pointin time.
Forge Ahead....... well think about the greatest generation. They forged ahead and succeded where no other generation would have....... They remembered their fathers, the lessons of the civil war, their heritage,and their love of country that overcame any and all political diatribe. Men don't sacrifice their lives for a "party" but a country and love of that country, and the man next to em. Thats the real shit.
Amen!
MM.....you are so right. Although there is much to be said about our ability to forge ahead, it is just disturbing to see the passing of our recognition of all that we overcome in forging ahead.
Kempite, all things today pass quickly out of remeberance. Pearl Harbor is now our fault, we should never have been in WWII WWI Korea Vietnam Kosovo Iraq. The trade centers were our fault. At least a few remember, well done sir
Ok I see your point, Kempite. I am not a New Yorker, so I probably wouldn't understand as much. It should have remained if its going to be built freedom tower. And no the other generic name.
WIZ.....I have said my peace during the process leading up to the decision. I even submitted a memorial design but the decision was not mine. So, regardless of my opposition, the structure is being built. So for me, the abandinment of the name is just another slap in the face.
Well if you agree with me. Then why would you want to subject the site to the "value of its property". The government spendulus bill can't make it a Federal park? Yet you are disputing the name of a building that you do not even want built. Fight the bigger picture. And go with your gut here. Don't allow the site to be reused and abused.
I think building a Freedom Tower to replace the Trade Towers is the greatest act of defiance against those who thought they could bring us down through terrorism. I think it is a greater memorial to the entrepreneurs and businessmen who worked at the Trade Towers displaying the American Dream of hard work and success.
Wiz......for most of the years following 9/11, your exact words were the source for a great deal of dispute about the use of ground zero. Your opinion is one that a great many have held and I do too. However, being a location that accounts for the highest property values in the world, the powers that be allowed economics to prevail over respect. In the wake of that decision a compromise was made which led to a design that kept the foot prints of both towers uncovered and marked by the reflection pools that I brought up early. For me the sad thing is that, in time, those reflection pools will lose their significance. Currently, every time I am in the area, the massive craters that now exist in the towers place are still a dramatic reminder of the dangers that exist and that we must confront.
I am considering the respect of the dead here. Building a huge building over it is not very respectful. Not that I believe in ghosts, but this is not a place for happy commerce. Its a place where people tragicaly died. Not to leave the hole that is there as a wound. But just put a memorial on the site. Not another building.
Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor had different significances. Gettysburg was a war between Americans. Pearl Harbor was an attack on our military and is still a Navy Base today.
Wiz.........I am inclined to agree with you. To me the location is sacred. Not just because of any symbolic suggestions but because for the lives lost on that location. The only saving grace here is that that the footproont of both towers will remain in tact with reflection pools directly atop of them.
The site is also the location of the permanent memorial to those who perished on that spot. Anyone who believes that the name or anything connected with this project is unimportant is devoid of any respect for the lives lost on that tragic day. Those who refuse to acknowledge the events of that by refusing to place a name of meaning to the new structure and memorial that will rise in its place are the same people who would allow us to forget that day and act as though it never happened.
I don't think anything should be built on the site. That would be like building a mini mall over the location of the battle of Gettysburg. Or a bunch of bars at pearl harbor. Let the dead have their peace.
Friday......I agree with your sentiment. The Port of Authority's willingness to change the name because of unhappy foriegners has created a symbolisn even more powerful than the originally intended name for the new structure.
And as you also eluded to, I feel that those who were turned off by the name "Freedom Tower", are not the kind of people any space in it should be rented to.
It is despicable.
As for DK, while he is down there, on his knees, talking about my ass, he can kiss it.
I'm not the one changing the name. It seems to me that those who are offended at us naming our tower the Freedom Tower are the ones who are hung up on the name. I am offended that they are so offended that we would dare name our reconstructed tower the Freedom Tower. What is their problem with that?
You are way to hung up on name. We have bigger issues to deal with. The fact is that it was pre-9/11 the World Trade Center and it should stay the World Trade Center. I don't need a name on some tower to remind me I live in the land of the free.
If naming our tower the Freedom Tower causes allies to become enemies, then they weren't good allies to begin with.
The fact is the US is world leader and to win the war on terror we need allies. I think that simply rebuilding the tower is an act of defiance and I am proud that we are rebuilding it. As for the name well as I said we are a world leader.
I don't. I think we should have made it the Freedom Tower as a symbol of our nationalism and defiance of terrorism. I would much rather be a citizen of the United States than of the World. I think really that our attempts to be the world community is part of the reason we are so easily sacrificing our constitution.
I agree Friday I like that its going to be the World Trade Center yet again. Perhapes the Committee should have a better PR person but the sybolism is very showing.
It seems to me that changing the name from the Freedom Tower to the World Trade Center is more symbolic than the name Freedom Tower itself.
Kemp, people like you wouldn't know what freedom was if it bit you in the ass. Can I say Patriot Act?The only thing that 9/11 has to do with freedom is that it served as an excuse for the government to take our freedoms away. So, the name "Freedom Tower" ironic at best.
Kemp, people like you wouldn't know what freedom was if it bit you in the ass. Can I say Patriot Act?The only thing that 9/11 has to do with freedom is that it served as an excuse for the government to take our freedoms away. So, the name "Freedom Tower" ironic at best.
Kemp, people like you wouldn't know what freedom was if it bit you in the ass. Can I say Patriot Act?The only thing that 9/11 has to do with freedom is that it served as an excuse for the government to take our freedoms away. So, the name "Freedom Tower" ironic at best.
Kemp, people like you wouldn't know what freedom was if it bit you in the ass. Can I say Patriot Act?The only thing that 9/11 has to do with freedom is that it served as an excuse for the government to take our freedoms away. So, the name "Freedom Tower" ironic at best.
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