Rebuilding of Ground Zero...

This may be too much to debate for a weekend, but i just got an email urging me to sign a petition that the Twin Towers should be rebuilt, and restored, to reflect EXACTLY how they once stood. i won't bore you with the politics involved in the email, but it basically said:

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki like to say that the Freedom Tower would be a symbol of defiance -- but the truth is, that the only defiance it would display is the defiance by the government of the will of its people. We hope you will take a stand. It will only take a minute to sign this petition.


My response:

I adamantly DO NOT agree with the rebuilding of Ground Zero, as the elected officials envision, or as your organization envisions. In my opinion, the ground on which the Twin Towers once stood is now SACRED, HOLLOWED ground, where many souls still remain. The area should become a memorial to those lost.
Period.

Now, please remove me from your mailing list IMMEDIATELY. Thank you.

Message edited 8/19/2006 11:44:59 AM.

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I DEFINITELY do not agree with rebulding the twin towers as they were!!

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i think its should be a memorial

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I dont agree with the rebuilding either.

My brother works in that area and he said the irony of it all is that there is so much more light in that part of town now. Id like to think that that light symbolizes hope for the future in some way or perhaps represents those beautiful people lost.

Rebuilding wont "stick it" to the terrorists. They will just find some other way to cause problems.We just need to be a few steps ahead of the game.

On another note, I think people would be very leary about working in the place that was detroyed. Yes, it is a lot of land that I am sure generates revenue for the city but it should be sacred with a memorial.

Just my two cents. I dont wish to debate either.

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I agree with you. I think they should just leave the site as it is.

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I don't know. My first response was to rebuild it exactly the same way. I guess part of me wanted to go there and see everything the same. I wanted our skyline back. Part of me still does. When I see old photos or movies, part of me really aches for the actual buildings. I know it's nothing in comparison to the lives that were lost, but to me the buildings themselves had a lot of meaning.

I used to visit FH in Philly and I'd come in to Penn Station on the train, and I remember coming in in the afternoon on 9/9/01 and seeing the towers and thinking "I am home." I remember shopping in the mall there every year for Christmas gifts, I remeber sitting on the bridge on chambers street and watching lightning strike the towers, or just sitting on the steps by school and marvelling at their majesty. There was something so remarkable about that, and I think what jarred me the most about 9/11 was that they weren;'t permanent. Much more than the death of loved ones in my own life or political changes, when the towers fell, it really made me realize in my heart that nothing was permanent.
So my instinct is to want it back exactly the way it was. I just want to sit on those steps by the west side highway and stare up and the towers, or sit in the park on the hudson and marvel at the colors of the sunset reflecting off the windows.
I think there's a natural need to have everything be the same again. but on the other hand, a few years alter looking back, as much as I want to look and have the skyline be the same, it would be a lie. How could we ever pretend that anything was the same? How could we pretend nothing had happenned.
I didn't lose anyone in the 9/11 attacks, so I'm sure people who did will feel differently, but I really do want there to be some kind of rebuilding. I don't want the whole thing to be a memorial park. Many cities have been razed by wars and they have always been rebuilt. it can be hallowed ground AND still be rebuilt. I understand the need for a monument for a rememberance, but at the same time, I don't think we should turn such a large part of our city into a memorial to sadness and fear and hate. I really believe inthe spirit of defiance, and rebuilding our city. I believe in the spirit of a phoenix rising from the ashes, and I believe thats what we've done as a city and that's what we'll continue to do, and I think we do need to build on that site. Does it have to be an office complex? No. It could be a museum, or a center for international relations, or anything. I just think we do need to rebuild. I can't say how I would feel if I had lost someone that day, or how anyone should feel, but I feel that a lot of the people who died that day were just going about their business, and that makes them the innocent vistims of a horrible attack, and the firefighters and police who died in such an act of bravery make it a hallowed ground, but it's also a site of bravery, where we can bravely move forward. it's a site where so many people ahve gathered and come together and held each other up, it's a symbol of how we picked up and kept going as indivuduals, as a city and as a nation, and I don't think we should have a hole, or a big grassy area, I think we need to rebuild. I think we deserve to rebuild, we deserve progress. I don't think it best honors the people who dies there, and the people who have showed such great bravery to carry on to make it justa field, or just a reflecting pool, I think it would honor everyone best to keep rebuilding and revitalizing the city and making it an active place, a place where good things can happen, where progress and art and free thinking can happen, whether it's in an office park or a school or a museum, make it SOMETHING we can move forward with while still remembering our past, but don't let it tether us to the past. I wish that site, like all of us would rise from the ashes to be something even more beautiful.


Sorry that was long!

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I think it should just be a memorial. I don't think it should be rebuilt.

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I think something should be built there but not a replica of the twin towers. There should of course be a memorial and an open space area.

Jenn you expressed my thoughts so much better then I could have...

Message edited 8/19/2006 2:42:03 PM.

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Don't think they should be rebuilt as they were pre-9/11

I think it should be a memorial

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interesting question.
Jenn you said it best - here is my little piece -
i think there should be a memorial, but i would like to see the towers rebuilt. why? i think the skyline looks odd without the Towers. It was a city marker' for me,that i miss.

JMHO

Message edited 8/20/2006 6:56:02 AM.

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I WANT THEM REBUILT!

i think it is nice to hae a memorial for the people who died there...

but to me the WHOLE AREA doesn't need to be dedicated to those that lost their lives...


i know if it were me who died there....i would want them rebuilt.

i have never looked at places were people died as "sacred". Otherwise we would never be able to build in a gazillion places

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Message edited 8/20/2006 9:20:16 AM.

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I have to agree with Redhead. I think something should be rebuilt but not a replica of the Twin Towers. I think by making the entire section a memorial it is making it more difficult to move forward and try to rebuild that area.

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they NEED to rebuld that area! Igs been too long

There will be a wonderful memorial for those that lost thier lives and I hope that our childrens children will never forget what happened that horrible day!

I think they should rebuild 4 towers instead of 2.

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Our homes are built on sacred grounds- "the indians" many years ago. anyway they should DEF rebuild the towers or something there and have a floor or in the basement where the mall was as a memorial. Rebuilding is restoring LIFE.

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it should be left like a memorial site just like Oklahoma City.

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I want them to be rebuilt also, not necessarily they way they were, but still put something there. They attacked not only people, but a symbol that we could all work together peacefully in one place. If we don't rebuild they will have won.

I also agree that there should be a memorial. That is pretty much what they are doing. They are giving us back a building where we can work and continue to grow the economy as well as a place to visit for spirituality.

I all reality, if we didn't build over half the places where there was significant loss of life, we wouldn't have the beautiful cities that exist today. We have to move on, but remember as well.

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i totally respect everyone's opinions...and i am glad that we can have this discussion...

here is my opinion:

i couldn't give a rats a$$ what the terrorist think of us if we DIDN'T rebuild - bottom line is, they're going to hate us no matter what. will they think they've "won" if we didn't rebuild? absolutely not. in their warped minds, we have and always will be the "western imperalism" they've hated for centuries. and while a small part of me gloats at the thought of the "Freedom Tower" hovering high above the skyline as a symbol of our defiance and enduring spirit - i still cannot put aside the fact that ground zero is in fact, a gravesite.

Message edited 8/21/2006 6:41:13 PM.