September 10, 2011
An unimaginable future
The view from Liberty Island, circa 1991. Don't let the bright sunshine fool you; it was a cold winter's day, a biting arctic wind blowing from the north, the air clean and crisp, the twin towers of the World Trade Center looming over my shoulder. If you'd have told me they'd be gone in little more than ten years, I'd have said you were insane.
It seemed like they were always there, in the background. I never really liked them; too sterile, too modern, lacking any of the lush style and flair of the older buildings that made Manhattan such an architectural delight.
Rockefeller Center; the Empire State Building; the Chrysler Building. Man, they're beautiful.
But the behemoths that claimed lower Manhattan for themselves were so cold, devoid of human warmth or scale. The plaza between them was always a windy, barren patch of concrete, too cold and desolate for even the bums and pigeons. One hurried through the space as the wind howled, anxious to get inside, blind to the hidden charms of the twins.
But now, paging through a stack of old vacation photos, I spy a shot taken from Brooklyn, and there, in the background, they stand, beneath an oddly dark cloud.
And now they're gone, with their thousands of occupants and the brave firefighters and policemen who perished with them, too.
Only now do I realize that I miss them, never mind their ugliness or their ever-so-sophisticated design. They were a part of Manhattan, and if they were going to be stay or go, well, that was our decision.
And every time I look at the skyline, I think that it just looks wrong.
The appropriate response isn't sadness or sorrow or mournful contemplation.
The proper response is rage. White-hot fury. The need for vengeance, what the perfidious act of war inflicted upon our fellow citizens requires, and what our war dead demand.
Our enemies sneer, laugh and mock those who talk of healing, forgiveness and moving on. The jihad doesn't require our consent; only our necks stretched bare for the blade.
And what of those ugly Twin Towers, laid low by our enemies? I miss the skyline I knew and took for granted, and all the New Yorkers I had yet to know -- and never will after 9/11.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 10, 2011 11:09 PM
| TrackBack