Moving Right Along

This weekend I caught a bit of the Food Network featuring the great american pie celebration or summat. I was amazed to see one of the judges in the pie contest is the guy who bought my car.

On the radio and briefly on the telly yesterday I kept hearing the debate about whether or not they should rebuild over Ground Zero in NYC. New Yorkers - specifically Manhattanites - seem to be fairly adamant about rebuilding. It's their city to be sure but the perspective of those islanders are fairly different from the rest of the world in many different ways. They distinctly live in a bubble - and I can say this because I've been in the bubble. It's a huge multi cultural bubble but it's nonetheless a bubble. It doesn't reflect the way the rest of the US.

I don't have a full sense of my own opinion on Ground Zero. I think NYC has a lot of green space and a bit more wouldn't hurt. But, I know that's a part of town that makes money. I am keen on the idea of preserving the stairs or incorporating them into a memorial green space or something. If NYC can't spare room for a staircase then they got real issues.

But the argument I cannot abide by is the argument that by not rebuilding and turning it into a memorial would be saying the terrorists won. BOLLOCKS!

That argument makes sense only in a universe where you do believe the terrorists did win and your defintion of winning is a) toppling two buildings and b) winning the battle is synonymous with winning the war. Lets say it's an act of war - well maybe they did win the battle. They lost 7 (?), we lost thousands. You have to think about these things the way generations fifty years from now will see it. People have likened it to building on Gettsyburg, Bull Run or some other sacred battlefield. Personally, I don't think any Yank or Confederate would like to see a shopping mall built over Gettsyburg as a way of proving that the Confederacy didn't lose the war. The south will rise again, after all! Lets build a water park in Normandy! If bodies are a metric, that was a failure so I think it's only fair that France builds something right over it - like a croissant factory.

I'm being somewhat facetious, but making a decision as a way of sending a message to terrorism is literally succumbing to terrorism itself. If the decision on what to do with Ground Zero is at all based on showing up Al Qaeda then we will ALWAYS live with Al Qaeda. Whether that's a memorial or an even bigger sexier tower than before. The decision should be made for what's right for NYC and the American people.

On a smaller note, I'm tired of the real pissant New Yorkers saying it's their city and they'll decide what to do with it. Lets not take that perspective, shall we? If America let NYC have that attitude, how much help would they have gotten from not only Americans but the rest of the world?

Is this the society we've become by the way? The past falls under the rubble and we build over it? This is why so many people are in psychotherapy.