Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 10:10:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis Epstein 
Subject: Toward The Towers Rising Again!


Some of you are the survivors of the email list I created in
September,looking for the addresses of newsgroup posters who
share my belief that it is vital that the Twin Towers be rebuilt...
survivors in the sense of not asking to be taken off the list,
I trust none of you have perished!

In looking around on the web yesterday I was delighted to find
a few sites that share our general goals,and have added the
addresses of many found expressing pro-rebuilding opinions on
the web.Web addresses of note:

http://www.rjdbiz.com/rebuildwtc/
http://www.buildthetowers.org/
http://www.buildanewwwtc.org/

I hope that the sheer number of people on the list above can
serve to reassure us all that we are not alone in our determination,
nor should pious hand-wringing about the economic realities of real
estate sway us from our goals...any more than the sacred-ground-
memorialists.If soldiers abandoned a battlefield because some of
their comrades had fallen there,it would do the fallen the very
opposite of honor!

I note that I am not endorsing everything on the websites above
(with which some of the recipients of this are affiliated).The
opinions expressed range from wanting the towers shifted completely
off their original footprints(I would prefer not to see that) to
replicating the old towers "down to the last toilet".

I believe the Towers must be rebuilt...and if terrorists manage
to destroy them 100 more times,they must be rebuilt 100 more times,
each time never an inch shorter.We need to build engineering marvels
that display a "can-do" attitude,not the "don't-dare" attitude voiced
by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation.(According to articles
linked from alt.obituaries by anti-rebuilding people,the LMRC is busy
holding public hearings...but do they let out-of-towners tell them
they are disgracing the whole country if they don't build tall?)
(I live in commuter-train range north of NYC,for any who don't know).

It would be nice for the new towers to be even taller than the
old...a few options include:
	1419 feet...so a TV antenna of the same height as
	the old one would reach an overall height of 1776
	feet...perhaps a matching flagpole on the other
	tower if it didn't disrupt reception.
	1455 feet...one foot taller than the Sears Tower.
	1484 feet...one foot taller than the Petronas Towers
	(real floors beating the spire!).
	Or dream bigger...but don't let the terrorists
succeed in having "cut us down to size",don't give them the
ability to point with pride to where the Towers USED to be as
a symbol of what they can accomplish,rather make them see new
towers as a symbol of their failure!

Building taller than the existing and planned Asian giants would
let America offer a physical refutation of the contention that the
21st will be "The Pacific Century",with the Far East taking leadership.
But if practicality makes us settle for something closer to the old
size,so be it as long as there is not one inch of retreat from the
skies.

I have campaigned for rebuilding since the day the Towers fell,
having already been angered by the conversion of massacre sites
to memorials much farther from home...the mentality behind such
granting of a permanent place on the map to murders has long
infuriated me.For almost as long,I have said that the ideal place
for a memorial to the dead of September 11th would be on the 111th
floor of new towers.(Something else at ground level,to be sure).

The new towers should bear a strong resemblance to the old,
square and with no setbacks for the first 110 floors.I have read
an article on work done by a professor(a Middle Eastern immigrant)
on how buildings could be engineered to better withstand aircraft
collisions and explosions...he has been working since the Oklahoma
City blast on this,and studied WTC wreckage to further refine his
findings.He believes that the right kind of skin could have cut
the airplanes into pieces on impact,not letting them penetrate
nearly as far.Certainly aluminum that catches fire at high
temperatures should not be used again!

There can and should be structural strengthening...much loved
as the bearing-wall construction of the WTC is by some,one
interior layer of structural columns within would likely have
made the difference in letting the firefighters have time to
put out the blazes before the structure could melt and collapse.
So let's add it.

This structural layer could form the outer wall of an eventual
setback over 110 stories,around a diminished upper extension
of the elevator core.The level (111th floor or whatever) of
the setback could have a memorial garden high in the sky,
where people could look out and remember those who died and
that keeping our aspiration to the skies shows they did not
die in vain.

I dare say that the fairly small upper section would fill
up with tenants easily...a 115-story building would have no
trouble at all renting the 115th floor,it's the 76th floor a
Silverstein would worry about.But I'd live or work up there
as high as I could...and I'm afraid of heights!

As to the planned March 11th demonstration by the
anti-rebuilding group(has a comparative tally been done
on signatures of anti-rebuilding vs. pro-rebuilding petitions?)
I agree that a counter-demonstration should not be directed
at the anti-rebuilders(though I sent impassioned emails to
two anti leaders last night)...we will not convince them.
Rather,we need to show the unconvinced how strong support
for rebuilding,and revulsion for the cowardice of not rebuilding,
is.

Though I live less than two hours away,I never visited the
Towers...I believed that I could always do it someday,and I
want that back.

I close with the words I routinely close emails
and newsgroup posts with,and expect to continue
to do so with until structural steel reaches 1368
feet on the site...should THIS round of rebuilding
not produce new towers,and necessitate a lifelong
(if need be) battle to see the new buildings torn
down and replaced by the huge twin towers that have
to be there for America to show its recovery,I will
add a line denouncing the undersized structures as
symbols of national humiliation:

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