This issue was seen as a lightening rod by such political savants as Newt Gingrich. The trumped up public vehemence comes not out of logic or proportion, but of their frustration with the plans for what will happen on those specific 16 acres(Ground Zero.) Before the pile of rubble and body parts had cooled, I voiced the opinion that we should reforest the site. Ten acres would accommodate 3,000 trees, one tree per person would create a massive statement in lower Manhattan. This sort of memorial would leave enough space for 3,000 park benches commemorating the dead. The trees would be the most awesome negation of the efforts of the terrorists. A living testament to those innocent lives that would recreate a woodland in the heart of the city. Nature heals, that is the whole idea of National Parks, we are nurtured by nature in ways that cannot be duplicated any other way.
It figures that rather than keeping discussion about this on a very high level, we use hatred and distrust of our own system to lash out at others who can establish plans and make effective change in the general area. Having been a resident of NYC, I can tell you, there is nowhere in Manhattan that I have found few places that bear any relationship with the community around it. Imagine being able to go underground every ten blocks or so and being magically transported to any other sector. Everything is virtually a subway, and/or bus ride away from every other place. The best way I can describe it is the largest neighborhood in the world. What is really needed in that city is the open space that parkland provides. This too reduces necessary services, while providing space, which is so badly needed, especially in that part of town.
What has instead been allowed to creep back onto the site is a smaller version of what it had been, a place for us to return to business as usual and the politics of greed that made us a target in the first place. The audacity of our corporate keepers is unparalleled in human history. I wish only the best for New Yorkers, but in their hurry to abolish the "free establishment clause within the Bill of Rights because of their unresolved feelings over 9-11 make the rest of us pretty upset.
It figures that rather than keeping discussion about this on a very high level, we use hatred and distrust of our own system to lash out at others who can establish plans and make effective change in the general area. Having been a resident of NYC, I can tell you, there is nowhere in Manhattan that I have found few places that bear any relationship with the community around it. Imagine being able to go underground every ten blocks or so and being magically transported to any other sector. Everything is virtually a subway, and/or bus ride away from every other place. The best way I can describe it is the largest neighborhood in the world. What is really needed in that city is the open space that parkland provides. This too reduces necessary services, while providing space, which is so badly needed, especially in that part of town.
What has instead been allowed to creep back onto the site is a smaller version of what it had been, a place for us to return to business as usual and the politics of greed that made us a target in the first place. The audacity of our corporate keepers is unparalleled in human history. I wish only the best for New Yorkers, but in their hurry to abolish the "free establishment clause within the Bill of Rights because of their unresolved feelings over 9-11 make the rest of us pretty upset.
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