Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 13:23:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: NY Times...Anti-Rebuild Letters Need Confronting


Today's New York Times letter column has several letters
on the issue of rebuilding at the World Trade Center site.

One of them is largely pro-rebuilding,from LeMarr Williams
of Chicago...he makes important arguments though he is
willing to settle for 100 story buildings.

One of them wants the site dedicated to disaster relief
charities and anti-terrorism think tanks,and earns the
letter column headline for the rebuilding-related section.
Author Ai Leng Choo of Ossining calls on decision-makers
to "think outside the box",when doing so is in fact the
problem...the rebuilding efforts should not stray outside
the box of having to restore what was lost September 11.

And a third pithily puts one of the emptiest arguments
of the anti-rebuilding crowd...their favorite question to
which they wish to hear no answer but the one they have
in their heads.

Linden alludes to an April 26th letter urging new towers
be built that are the tallest in the world,a cause I
support and expect a substantial number of you do too.
I respect that some of you want more exact copies of
the old Towers.

My response to her is below;
I urge you to similarly send letters to letters@nytimes.com
with your name,regular mail address,and phone number
(required by them to print letters) that answer Linden's
question with affirmative enthusiasm to work on a very
high floor of new towers at least as tall as the old.

Don't send letters just like mine...make your own
favorite points,say what's most important to you in
your own way...but the more people answering her
question the way she doesn't expect the more likely
at least one of them will get into print.

If you'd rather answer Ai Leng Choo's letter by all
means respond to that...or applaud Williams.

Points I didn't bother making below include that the
proposed new structures favored by the Whitehead clique
are no taller than what's across the street...the
effect is completely eliminating the structures there
standing out from the skyline.

Nor did I contrast this cowardice in New York to the
promptly proceeding reconstruction of the Pentagon,
or call on the demonstration of American can-do
rather than don't-dare attitudes to create engineering
marvels with strength and safety never yet matched.

Nor did I say that despite being afraid of heights,
I'd be honored to LIVE on that 110th floor.

And of course I don't expect any of you to echo my
personal pet peeve that there is NO Editor of the
New York Times and has not been for many decades,
but they always make letters start "To the Editor".

But please...write them letters...and maybe our voices
will get it understood that there is NO shortage of
potential top-floor tenants!

[As always,I immediately honor requests to be
removed from my email list...I hope my next
communication will be confirmation that the
Team Twin Towers website is up and running!]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 12:50:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis Epstein <le@main.put.com>
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: Eager to Rent 110th Floor!


Dear Editors:

(I know you will pretend I started "To the Editor:",
but until the New York Times unites its news and
editorial pages under one ultimately responsible
editor,there is no one who is "the Editor").

  Correspondent Ann. E. Linden (Letters,April 28)
says,
	"I have one simple question:
Who does he think would ever want to rent space
on the 110th floor?"

  This question is often heard from people who do
not care to listen to the true answer...more people
than could possibly fit on that 110th floor!

  I know that I would feel honored to work on the
110th floor of new,tallest-in-the-world towers as
proposed by the earlier correspondent,and that there
are many people who feel likewise.
  Unfortunately there seems a determination in the
circles of power to ignore the substantial public
support for denying the attackers' wishes that
landmark giant towers no longer stand on that site,
and instead set surrender to those wishes in stone.
If history records that Al-Qaida succeeded in
"cutting us down to size" and we dared not rebuild,
future generations of terrorists will be emboldened
and no landmark will be safe from future attacks
whatever steps we take toward becoming a police
state in grip of the fear they wish us to have.

  Let us build giant new towers that will instead
stand as evidence of terrorist failure rather than
success,and inspire new generations of free people
rather than show destructive acts are irreversible.
We can not be terrorized out of aspiring to the skies.

Louis Epstein
R.D. 13
Carmel,New York
(845) 225-4848

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.