Rebuilding the WTC – the Greatest Tribute Possible

“To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money – and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work.”

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

In July, the Port Authority of New York and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will announce six first phase designs to replace the World Trade Center towers. It is appropriate that this will be announced in July, the anniversary of our nation’s declaration of freedom. It was this very same freedom that was the cause of the attacks that brought down the towers on that black Tuesday last September. The attacks were masterminded by those who hate America for what it represents: The freedom to make money. Therefore, there could be no more fitting tribute to those who died in that act of war than to rebuild the towers – and to rebuild them taller and more magnificent than they were.

America is often denigrated as a country of “materialistic capitalists” whose only concern is for their own happiness and how much they can produce. It is this invariable pursuit of happiness and production through hard work that has enabled America to surpass the rest of the world in both achievements and standard of living. The freedom to make money has allowed America to realize what most other nations can only dream about, because it is through money that men can trade honestly with each other. To quote Ayn Rand: “Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more.”

There is no free trade among those who wish to destroy America. For our enemies, strength is only achieved through the barrel of a gun. We love life, and they love death. To the terrorists, the towers were a blatant symbol of the freedom that they hate: the WTC mall was one of the most profitable in the country, and the WTC observation deck allowed views of freedom for 45 miles in every direction.

Among America’s “materialistic capitalists” is Frank Lowy, whose family owns thirty-percent of Westfeld Holdings. Westfeld holds a 99-year lease on all of the WTC site’s retail space. Lowy’s business partner, Larry Silverstein, holds the 99-year lease on the site’s office space. Together, these two men could bring a symbol of America’s freedom and capitalism’s strength back to lower Manhattan. Lowy knows the value of freedom. He fought to defend Israel in 1948, and he built his retail empire from a single delicatessen in Sydney, Australia.

Lowy and Silverstein face an uphill battle against those who are opposed to using the site for commerce and against those who have called for the site to become a memorial park. While it is true that the WTC site calls forth an emotional reaction that needs some kind of memorial to those who died on September 11, turning the site into a mausoleum is the wrong action to take. It is an irrational emotional response. On the contrary, rebuilding the towers would be the most fitting memorial to America and what it represents. Finding supporters for reconstruction is as easy as looking to those who cleared the rubble from the collapsed towers. Many of the construction workers expressed a desire to work without pay to help rebuild the towers.

Would merchants and businesses be too afraid to occupy such a blatant target for another terrorist attack? Very few would harbor such a fear. Once people caught a glimpse of the towers rising out of the ashes, there would be an avalanche of businessman rushing to sign leases or to pressure their employers to move there, if for no other reason than to boast on company brochures and annual reports about locating in the rebuilt towers. The leaders of commerce know what the towers represent, and they will not live their lives in fear.

Reason dictates that the most fitting tribute to those who died in the attacks is a soaring beacon to the rest of the civilized world – a beacon that represents freedom…and a country of money.