Forgetting 9/11, Forgetting Freedom

Posted on March 27, 2009 by

Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon, said the renaming of the tower is one more example that the nation is forgetting 9/11.

“If we can’t say the word freedom out loud, God help us,” she said.

“I understand the decision from a marketing point of view. But it saddens me that it’s no longer economically viable to declare who we are.”

The issue of the name change — toward which the PA has been shifting for more than a year — came up at a news conference after the agency signed a lease with its first major tenant.

A Chinese firm, Vantone Industrial Co., will lease six floors. A four-page press release for the lease signing included the name “Freedom Tower” twice — only in parentheses.

The only other tenants so far are the federal and state governments.

“Freedom Tower” was coined by then-Gov. George Pataki, who oversaw the initial designs for the reconstruction of the World Trade Center and wanted a tower to rise a symbolic 1,776 feet at a time of heightened patriotism.

Pataki yesterday bristled at the name change.

“The Freedom Tower is not simply another piece of real estate and not just a name for marketing purposes. In design and name, it is symbolic of our commitment to rise above the attacks of Sept. 11,” he said.

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13 Responses to Forgetting 9/11, Forgetting Freedom

  1. Math says:
    March 31, 2009 at 2:34 pm

    Who is more free: the one who says he’s free, or the one who really is? China could name a building “Freedom Tower”, would it make their people free? It’s just a name. Business is business, cold and heartless.

  2. itooktheredpill says:
    March 31, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    Guess who else doesn’t want us to use the word “Freedom”? …

    CAIR’S ADVICE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:
    10 TERMS NOT TO USE WITH MUSLIMS

  3. Jonah says:
    March 31, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Yeah, that was a pretty dumb article. But I’m pretty sure it was from the Christian Science Monitor, not CAIR.

  4. Math says:
    March 31, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    1. I don’t give much credibility to a blog that consistently refers to President Obama as President Hussein.
    2. Not that I give any credit to the blog you posted about the usage of the word freedom, but more generally, obviously when you travel the world you adapt your speeches. If he went to China and started talking about democracy or to Israel and started talking about Hitler, you can be sure he would get a boot in the ass and a nice crisis on his hands. It’s called diplomacy.

  5. Jonah says:
    April 1, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    Perhaps a good analogy is the way many conservatives now react to the word “hope”. It’s not that you’re actually anti-hope, but rather that you associate the word strongly with someone whose policies you dislike. So it is with many Muslims and “freedom”. It’s not that they’re anti-freedom (of course there are some who are, but those aren’t the ones we can really be diplomatic with anyway), but it’s hard not to have a visceral reaction given their relationship to the penultimate guy in this graphic.

  6. itooktheredpill says:
    April 1, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    Thanks for the link Jonah. It’s very interesting.

    But as to your issues with George W. Bush and “freedom”, do you have issues with the other Presidents who mentioned it multiple times? Like Reagan, Thomas Jefferson, etc.? Or, how about George Washington and other early Presidents who used the synonymous word “liberty”?

  7. Math says:
    April 1, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    Of course the context was not quite the same in the times of Reagan, Jefferson and Washington. I’m sure you can understand that.

  8. Jonah says:
    April 1, 2009 at 8:55 pm

    I have no problem with the word, of course. And if you think that Muslims dislike Bush because of the word “freedom”, I think it’s much more likely that they dislike the word “freedom” because of Bush.

  9. itooktheredpill says:
    April 1, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    The peoples of the earth face the future with grave uncertainty, composed almost equally of great hopes and great fears. In this time of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will, strength, and wise leadership.

    It is fitting, therefore, that we take this occasion to proclaim to the world the essential principles of the faith by which we live, and to declare our aims to all peoples.

    The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. We believe that all men have a right to freedom of thought and expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God.

    From this faith we will not be moved.

    The American people desire, and are determined to work for, a world in which all nations and all peoples are free to govern themselves as they see fit, and to achieve a decent and satisfying life. Above all else, our people desire, and are determined to work for, peace on earth–a just and lasting peace–based on genuine agreement freely arrived at by equals.

    In the pursuit of these aims, the United States and other like-minded nations find themselves directly opposed by a regime with contrary aims and a totally different concept of life.

    That regime adheres to a false philosophy which purports to offer freedom, security, and greater opportunity to mankind. Misled by that philosophy, many peoples have sacrificed their liberties only to learn to their sorrow that deceit and mockery, poverty and tyranny, are their reward.

    That false philosophy is communism.

    Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters.

    Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice.

    Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think.

    Democracy maintains that government is established for the benefit of the individual, and is charged with the responsibility of protecting the rights of the individual and his freedom in the exercise of those abilities of his.

    Communism maintains that social wrongs can be corrected only by violence.

    Democracy has proved that social justice can be achieved through peaceful change.

    Communism holds that the world is so widely divided into opposing classes that war is inevitable.

    Democracy holds that free nations can settle differences justly and maintain a lasting peace.

    These differences between communism and democracy do not concern the United States alone. People everywhere are coming to realize that what is involved is material well-being, human dignity, and the right to believe in and worship God.

    – A Democrat President

    Both the communists and the Islamic fascists are against religious freedom for Jews and Christians. And they are working together through the “57 state” OIC and the United Nations.

  10. itooktheredpill says:
    April 1, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    There is no freedom in a totalitarian state.

    How do we preserve freedom?
    Listen to another quote from a Democratic President:

    The most important business in this Nation–or any other nation, for that matter-is raising and training children. If those children have the proper environment at home, and educationally, very, very few of them ever turn out wrong. I don’t think we put enough stress on the necessity of implanting in the child’s mind the moral code under which we live.

    The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.

    If we don’t have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.

    We would have done well to heed that warning. Instead, we have allowed the proper fundamental moral background to be attacked, and now, 59 years later, we are getting closer and closer to a totalitarian government.

    Yes, it’s important to talk about freedom. I rather like how many times Bush spoke of freedom, not just for us, but for people around the world.

    But now we have a “Present” of the United States, a “Communist in Chief”, who thinks the American Revolution was not about freedom from tyranny, but rather about “bring[ing] an Empire to its knees”.

  11. Jonah says:
    April 1, 2009 at 10:29 pm

    Red, if you’re still around, have you thought about my idea in the top thread?

  12. itooktheredpill says:
    April 1, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    Red, if you’re still around,

    Curiosity got the best of me and I came back to check comments. I really shouldn’t be even taking the time to do that.

    have you thought about my idea in the top thread?

    Not interested at this time.

  13. Jonah says:
    April 2, 2009 at 8:44 am

    That’s too bad. Perhaps when you have more free time you’ll give it a chance.

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