1/1/11 — “HAPPY NEW YEAR…” We wish all friends of the Twin Towers a very happy 2011. People may think that we are delusional to believe that this year will hold dramatic changes for the WTC, but believe it we do. Not because of vague hunches or wishful thinking, but because we have faith that our system of government will reward dedicated and well-informed efforts and that officials will come to see the magnitude of the mistake they are making.
Americans are used to vain politicians wasting massive amounts of money. But when did “because they got away with it” become an acceptable reason for doing anything, let alone for building the most significant construction project in American history? Fortunately, one thing officials can be trusted to do is look out for their own best interests and we believe that a convergence of interests is coming.
If those who are currently celebrating the halfway mark of the Freedom Tower only knew the whole story, they would be appalled, they would be ashamed, and they would be angry. When all the facts are considered, what is happening at the Trade Center makes no objective sense – until corruption is factored in.
The Freedom Tower is a giant middle-finger salute to the American people, and the higher it goes, the more offensive and obnoxious it becomes, because it is being built on a lie. What is most alarming is that those natural enemies – politicians and the press – have joined forces to present a blatantly false picture at Ground Zero. If they can do that there, what would stop them from doing it wherever they please?
So what happens when the facts about the ill-conceived project are known — we’ll just keep building it anyway? Not likely. If the media will honestly look at the project and report what they find, then at the very least the people will demand to know what it would cost to build new Twin Towers instead — and when they find out, the current project will be history.
The actual facts are not difficult to ascertain. All that is required is to put them in context and broadcast them. They are there for all to see, but have been buried in layers of opinions and assumptions. The questions that officials and the media have been ducking for years will not go away. We have been sending out a number of Freedom of Information requests, not only because we are convinced that reason can still prevail at Ground Zero – but also because we are dedicated, no matter what, to compiling an historical record that will indict everyone who participated in, or could have prevented, such a thoroughly despicable scam.
Our efforts got an honorable mention in the Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, just before Thanksgiving, when we were asked to comment on the way the Port Authority operates — and we hope that recognition will be the beginning of a trend.
As we told the PA Commissioners in November: “Anyone who thinks we are running out of steam, should think again, because just the opposite is true. What is going on at Ground Zero is an insult to everything this country stands for. Now Mr. Silverstein wants stimulus money, for towers that will never stimulate the spirit of our nation; they will depress it. What is going forward at Ground Zero is the rancid proof of a rancid autocracy that thinks that honoring power is what matters most. But this country was founded on the principle that honoring people is what matters most.”
A handful of officials are depriving our own citizens, and friends around the world, of a skyline that thrilled a generation of people everywhere. How could they rob the public of that legendary outdoor observation deck overlooking the most breathtaking city in the world and still pretend to care about what we want — or think we won’t notice that we’re being robbed?
But what makes the current prospect especially sad is that instead of showing that we have it in us to triumph greatly over whatever would defeat us — just when the world needs that reassurance most — our representatives have chosen to take the low road and be second-rate in our name.
Commentators have been suggesting that at the root of America’s current malaise is a dread that for the first time in our history the best is not yet to come. Most of us can easily imagine what new, state-of-the-art Twin Towers would look like and nothing could illustrate the depressing new-normal better than the two, or possibly three, towers they may eventually succeed in building at Ground Zero instead.
So who is delusional: The person who refuses to concede that officials have succeeded in cheating the people of the United States out of the Twin Towers they clearly want, need, and deserve? Or the person who believes that they will actually get away with it? One thing is sure, if we give up they will get away with it — to their enduring shame — and ours.
12/23/2010 — “A Case of Mistaken Identity…” Forty years ago today, the real One World Trade Center was topped off. And even though the Twins were soon surpassed in height, they were never surpassed in majesty. The Flim-Flam tower may be halfway up, but there is no way for officials to hide how illegitimate is. We wrote a couple of years ago that the Rightful Heir of Twin Towers I is Twin Towers II and it is an apt analogy. A pretender may usurp a throne and occupy it for awhile, but the fakes are never tolerated for long. We got a Christmas present today when a well-placed Port Authority employee noted off-the-record that many PA employees would be delighted to see the Freedom Tower pulled down and the Towers back where they belong. We’d heard that before, but coming now makes it all the more meaningful.
A video clip of Christopher Ward on NY1 today said that “New Yorkers want to see their tower…” The man is delusional if he really believes that the eyesore he is building is what New Yorkers want to see. And the question he should be asking is what do Americans want to see, since, as has been so often noted, New York took the hit for America. Something that really stood out when we met with him and Twin Towers II designer Ken Gardner in September, 2008, was that he was very smooth until Richard Hughes pointed out that the so-called public process was a fraud. Then he lost his cool and became defensive, because he knew that without the fiction that it was the result of a democratic process he had no justification for what he was about to do.
When it comes to Swamp Villains, Ward is as creepy as they get. Bin Laden celebrated that “The values of this Western civilization under the leadership of America have been destroyed. Those awesome symbolic towers that speak of liberty, human rights, and humanity have been destroyed. They have gone up in smoke…” and then our pitiful politicians gave him the satisfaction of seeing a tower shaped like a tombstone take their place.
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