It is frustrating it is not already complete. But to claim all we have is a hole in the ground is false.
Personally, liked this design better.
Posted on 09/10/2011 8:26:57 AM PDT by Sudetenland
Alright, what happened on 9/11/2001 was tragic, horrible, nightmarish, unprecedented, disturbing, outrageous, angering, saddening . . . whatever you adjective you wish to use . . . it was all of those and more, but America seems to have become so filled with the mentality of victimhood that we have lost sight of ourselves and our greatness.
I know I'm going to make a lot of folks angry with this post, but it is time for America to grow up.
There is nothing wrong with commemorating a tragic event. We still commemorate the attack against Pearl Harbor. We--some of us--still remember D-Day, that day of awful struggle and great victory. We remember Guadalcanal, Bataan, the Philippines, and Okinawa . . . we remember, but we don't wallow in them.
There is nothing wrong with commemorating those days which have directly impacted on our national identity and our national pride, but pride is what is missing in America today.
America, we took a tremendous cheap shot when we weren't looking . . . we stumbled in shock. Perhaps our knees got weak and our eyes momentarily began to glaze over, but then we shook our head, righted ourselves, straightened out spines, looked around to see who the cowards were who blindsided us, and then set about making them pay.
After the initial attack, America came back swinging and started on the path towards recovery. Our economy, which was already languishing in the beginnings of a recession, took a trillion dollar blow with the loss of our financial center, but we shook all of that off, recovered from the economic loss and moved on . . . at least physically.
The problem is that our nation is filled with emotional children--mostly on the left, but not entirely. It seems as though the adults have lost control and only the children remain. We wallow in a morass of maudlin self-pity and "poor me"-ism.
When children suffer a loss, they aren't emotionally mature enough to understand or to cope with it, so they live in that pain for a long time. They continue to suffer until an adult--their parents, their teachers, their relatives--comes along and reassures them everything will be alright and then shows them how to cope and understand their loss.
When adults suffer a loss, they weep, they morn, they may even withdraw for a while, but eventually they come to understand that loss and pain are a part of life and that we must move on with our lives . . . never forgetting the past, but never wallowing in it, never trapped by it. They may be consoled for a short time by their friends of families, but it is up to them to find their own path to recovery.
America has become spoiled and seems to want to wallow in a mire of self-pity and self-absorption. We have been lectured by a media which continually talks down our nation and our greatness, focuses on limitations, and repeatedly tells us that our time of greatness has passed. Our educators teach our children of the evils of success and the nobility of suffering and lack.
They attack institutions which form the core of our greatness, our churches, our businesses, and our self-starters. We are told that we should not expect to be as successful as our parents or their parents--that we have to accept less, to aspire to be less; that, instead of American exceptionalism, America is bad because we have too great of a "carbon footprint."
We are repeatedly instructed that we use too much energy, that we are doomed by a mythical dragon called "man-made global warming," and that we must all learn to live with less--because that is only "fair."
The liberals tell us that we have no right to be the greatest, the wealthiest, the strongest, the most successful, the most free nation on Earth and indeed in history. No, we must hate ourselves because we take more than our "fair share." We must limit ourselves and be more like Europe. We must . . . live lives of "shared sacrifice" rather than individual greatness.
Folks, this is collectivism. This is Marxism at its very worst, its most pernicious, and dishonest. We can't do it ourselves, we need the government to do it for us and because no one can excel, we must let government show us how to do it with less--so that others can have "more."
When we suffer, we are supposed to let daddy and mommy government tell us that everything is going to be okay and to let them deal with everything while they take care of us.
This maudlin, liberal-driven, juvenile, self-loathing mentality has left us with a gaping hole where the World Trade Center used to be.
Think of the typically American, arrogant--brashness of that name, "The World Trade Center." Not "The American Trade Center," not the "New York Trade Center," but the "World Trade Center." The very name brings to mind the image of the greatness, the arrogance, the can-do attitude that has exemplified our national spirit for over two centuries.
But . . . what do we have today? We have so much bureaucratic red tape and have become so preoccupied with political correctness and acceptance that we have been unable to do in 10 years what should have been done in three. Think of that, the Empire State Building was completed in just 18 months. The first tower of the WTC was ready for occupation just 2 years after construction began and the second tower was ready in 3. Six of the seven buildings that comprised the entire center were completed in just about a decade.
Today, a decade later, we have a park and a giant gaping hole in New York City and in Pennsylvania where the heroes of Flight 93 rebelled against the hijackers and forced the plane to crash into the ground at the expense of their lives, we still have . . . an empty field.
Snap out of it America! This is pathetic.
Tomorrow in New York City, instead of a building opening, instead of a glorious pair of towers gleaming in the sunlight standing taller, prouder, more brazen and arrogant than ever, we will witness a ceremony in which there will be no firemen or policemen--the heroes who braved the nightmare in their efforts to save thousands of people, who strove to rescue and save lives and no clergymen to eulogize and pray for our loss--political correctness is the disease that rots our culture more than any other--none of those who work to make a difference in our lives standing beside those who lost their loved ones in the attacks.
No, no room for any of them, no room for the heroes. No room for God. Just room for the families of the victims--as it should be--and just room for the politicians, poets, and a symphony orchestra just enough room for those who seek to glorify themselves in the aftermath of what others paid for with their lives.
Really??? No room for firemen? No room for policemen? No room for God? But room for an orchestra?
Hey, Mayor Bloomberg, maybe if you had not spent so much time wrapped up in your little political correctness obsession and your kowtowing to Muslim Clerics, maybe if you didn't spend so much time advocating for a mosque to be built at "ground zero," maybe if you had gotten up off your ass and built the damn buildings instead of holding endless competitions to see who could come up with the most artistic--self-indulgent design, you would have room for those who sacrificed so much for their fellow citizens.
Time to throw off the sack cloth and ashes folks, time to remove the death shrouds and the liberal handcuffs and get back to doing what made America great.
Time to get rid of the posers and the pretenders.
Time to wash our hands of the self-doubt and self-pity.
Time to throw out those who place political correctness over greatness and responsibility and replace them with people who still believe in American exceptionalism.
Time to elect people who see America as the great nation it is rather than the source of evil around the world.
It is time to return to Ronald Reagan's "Shining City on the Hill."
Capitalism isn't evil, it is the most empowering force for good in the world. It allows every man and woman to achieve exactly as much as he or she is willing to work for and aspire towards. The only limits it places on a person are those he sets on himself.
Exceptionalism isn't bad, it is the direct result of hard work and industry. It is born from faith in God, in oneself, and in the opportunity to achieve.
Strength isn't bad, it is born of success and the noble desire to defend oneself, one's neighbor and to protect those who are unable to protect themselves.
America isn't evil, it has been the greatest force for good in the world. We have expended more capital, sacrificed more blood, and spent more time in the uplifting and defense of others than any other nation in history. When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, it is America that always rises to the occasion. It is the American people who spend the time, send the treasure and their sons and daughters to assist those in need.
It is not "folklore" that America is "God's Country," it is the truth. America is a beacon of freedom and opportunity towards which the world has looked for over a century. We are that Shining City on the Hill."
It is time for us to remember our greatness.
Memorialize our losses, give praise to our heroes, give thanks to God for this great nation, then BUILD THE DAMN BUILDINGS and stop wallowing in self-pity.
Time to grow up, America.
Long Live Our American Republic!!!
Feel free to differ with me--I know some will.
memorials should be uplifting.
the hole with water falling is not uplifting.
I especially like the line about “shared sacrifice” instead of individual greatness. I think you’ve expressed why I don’t have any interest in tomorrow’s circus. I mean, ceremony. It’s just going to be an arena full of people who don’t really seem to GET what happened, or why, or what we need to do about it.
The hole in the ground is a memorial of sorts.
It’s a memorial to the left’s hatred of America.
A mosque at that location would be icing on their cake.
Instead, we get a huge hole in the ground filling up with water. Add to that, no first responders allowed at the ceremony and nothing remotely resembling our founding Christianity present either.
What an embarrassment! It's like we're hanging our heads in shame!In our home, we will be commemorating the 10 year anniversary of being attacked in our own way....prayers, lots of prayers!
When you consider what our military built in DAYS in WWII and then look at that insult in downtown Manhattan, you wonder why there's never been an investigation by SOMEBODY as to why there's still a huge hole there 10 years later.
right.
we just watched major bloomberg the secular guy
on fox.
whatta evil person.
I know that I am in the minority, but I kind of like it. Photos from above don’t really do it justice. I find it, peaceful.
It is frustrating it is not already complete. But to claim all we have is a hole in the ground is false.
Personally, liked this design better.
Aren’t most or all of the buildings around WTC 1 and 2 already re-built?
looks like the middle finger is up!
I know it was never going to happen....for a lot of reasons ... but I still wish they would have built it back to look exactly like it did
A lot of it of it is red tape and local, state and federal regulations. Mark Steyn was talking about this yesterday while he was hosting the Rush Limbaugh show, how we were able to build the Empire State Building in 18 months during the Great Depression and how today it would take 18 months just to get a permit to build a wheelchair ramp.
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I agree.
Now see here! If we can put a man on the moon, we can....we can...
Oh, wait. Never mind.
And to think that during the Depression they built the Empire State Building's 102 floors, complete, in 18 months!
Oh, well. That was then when men were men and there was no OSHA! Or environmental impact studies! Oh, how we have fallen.
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