Confessions from Fourth Grade

A couple weeks ago I watched a story on the news featuring the new One World Trade Center building in New York City. Workers had just erected a spire of several hundred feet in height, which made the building the tallest in the Western hemisphere. The new building is built to withstand car bombings and jetliner impact - arguably one of the most impressive and "safe" buildings you could be in. The top building executive addressed one of the biggest questions asked concerning the reasoning of this project.... Why rebuild the World Trade Center, and why would people want to live and work in it after what happened in 2001?

I can't recall his exact answer, but one word he used stood out to me: pride. People want the attackers to know that they refuse to cower or live in defeat. The World Trade Center is a U.S. symbol of its world power, that American ideals are above all other ideals. Re-erecting the demolished World Trade Center and investing so much money and effort into making the building better than before makes a deliberate statement to the world. Maybe it gives Americans, especially those who suffered personal loss of loved ones, a sense of retribution. I don't personally know anyone who lost someone on 9/11, but surely there would be lots of very different opinions and feelings about the new building. I am far from qualified to say what this project means.