Rebuild the Twin Towers

I remember watching on my computer at work when the Twin Towers were burning on 9/11. I remember wondering how they would ever be able to repair the damage without taking down the towers first.

Then of course, and all too quickly, the worst happened, and the towers came down, felled by the brutal heat of burning jet fuel.

I didn't figure we'd rebuild the towers. Too big a target? No, we just didn't need all that office space in one place. If it was cost-effective to build buildings that big, I figured people would be lining up to do it -- so if they weren't, I was fine with putting up a memorial or a park or whatever else New Yorkers could dream up, and be done with it.

But I've changed my mind, because of Katrina. See, Katrina (well actually poorly-built levees) drowned New Orleans. And a good number of people questioned the economic wisdom of rebuilding a city under water. And at first I agreed with them as well.

But, thinking about New Orleans, I decided that if we were going to abandon a city, it had to be because we DECIDED to do it, not becuase of some storm.

And if that was true of New Orleans, which was felled by an act of nature and incompetence, how much more should that be true of the Twin Towers, felled by a brutal act of terrorism?

So, I say Rebuild the Towers. I don't care if they make economic sense. I don't care if a sensible person would tear down the towers if they were there today (they wouldn't, but I don't care anyway).

We can't let the terrorists get away with changing our landscape. It may be vain, it may seem silly, it may defy logic, but sometimes I just feel (not think, feel -- I know, I know, don't live by feeling -- I don't care), I just feel that just as New Orleans needed Mardi Gras to show it was coming back, or nation just won't be really healed from the scars of 9/11 until something really big is standing where the two towers once stood.

If you agree with me, please go to The Twin Towers Alliance, and sign their petition. Then read the comments made by some of the other signatories. Then tell a friend.

Update: The New York Sun ran this piece by Alicia Cohen which also mentions the alliance. Unfortunately, you have to subscribe to read it. Starting line:

While I'm not sure which maximum-security federal prison will be stuck with Zacarias Moussaoui for the rest of his life, it looks like we in New York are getting stuck with the awful Freedom Tower.