If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost.

That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

— Henry David Thoreau

Restoring the Twin Towers to the skyline would be a healing Balm of Gilead for America and the world. That statement will seem far-fetched to most visitors to this site — until they read the short history that follows. Then it will become clear that a better World Trade Center is not only possible, but essential to a better world.

The comprehensive blueprint on the next page can only be appreciated by first reading the little-known account of what produced the current development. Many articles and books have been written on the history of rebuilding the World Trade Center. Very few of us will ever read them. But everyone should know what happened at Ground Zero in the years after 9/11, because it is powerfully broadcasting who we are as a nation, whether we know it or not.

There is ample proof that business-as-usual crowded out democratic principles when the plans were made to rebuild the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center that we see today demonstrates how Corporate priorities and political Special Interests can dominate the media, and through it, manipulate public opinion — even when it matters most.

The fact that most people have no idea what really drove the rebuilding process is proof of how effectively devious “public relations” can short-circuit the social compact. We are supposed to know what is driving decisions made in our name by our public servants in our country — or it is not really ours.

The World Trade Center is glaring proof of how easily the public can be made the low man on a totem pole supposedly dedicated to Democracy. Exposing that influence and showing how it is still possible to make the World Trade Center an emblem of the quintessential American Spirit is what drives this proposal.

Until we correct the flaws in what is standing on the World Trade Center’s hallowed ground, it will always be where Democracy in America was subverted. That will be substantiated and documented many times over on the pages ahead. Fortunately, by building on what is already there on the site, it can still live up to its lofty purpose.

A widower of one of the WTC victims wrote in 2002: “Just as I want my wife back, people want their towers back. Don’t let today’s fears control tomorrow’s dreams.” But that is just what officials did.

“People Want Their Towers Back” was demonstrably true. Of course, that did not mean all people. There was a lot of fear of another attack in 2002 — as well as some people who never liked the Twins. But the beauty of democracy is that it allows a collective voice to be heard and respected above all — to fairly decide every matter, large or small.

At the World Trade Center, that voice was deliberately muffled and ignored. This New York Post cover deserved national attention. The whole country and the Free World were attacked on 9/11. But ten months later, when a report based on a significant sampling found that half of New York wanted the Towers rebuilt, the story was buried — even in New York.

That was news everyone deserved to know and discuss. Especially since the other half was splintered into preferences with low double-digit support. American taxpayers funded the rebuilding. And the price each victim paid is beyond knowing. But, when some 9/11 Families vehemently disagreed with the official plan, their voices were marginalized and misrepresented.

Trying to discredit those 9/11 families who objected to the corporate priorities of the project while overrepresenting the opinions of family members who agreed with it was an insult to every American. As if some victims could possibly matter more than others. But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shutdown efforts to poll every next-of-kin — because he must have known they would reject the official plans.

The site where thousands of Americans were slaughtered simply for being Americans has to honestly represent the American Family. Once people realize that the current WTC “campus” is selling America short, they are likely to cross every partisan line (as everyone did after 9/11) to insist on making the WTC site a fitting tribute to Democracy. What could matter more?

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Mayor Bloomberg, and New York Governor George Pataki, had tremendous legitimate concerns and responsibilities to consider. But nothing mattered more than honoring the will of the people. Knowing that, they nevertheless conspired to undermine the public’s influence. And a full reckoning is overdue.

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger, who later received a Pulitzer Prize for his report on the early rebuilding protocols wrote in his 7/29/2002 New Yorker column “Up From Zero”:

Governor Pataki, who, along with Governor James Mcreevey, of New Jersey, controls the Port Authority, is fond of using words like “hallowed ground” when he talks about the site. But the people who report to him talk about “obligations to leaseholders” and “obligations to bondholders”.

In fact, if there was ever a piece of land that should be treated as part of the public domain, it is this one… the Governor should be pressing the Port Authority to operate with a greater sense of civic responsibility.

The compromise at Ground Zero left us with a skyline that echoes the butchered 9/11 skyline from 9:59 to 10:28 AM – when the North Tower also collapsed. It is focused on a sanitized plaza where every vestige and relic of the attacks was forced below ground level. The inspiring Sphere that survived hell-on-earth sits in exile across the street.

And, in what deeply offends and distresses so many victims’ families, the unidentified remains are locked in the museum instead of in the center of a noble, above-ground vault.

Finally, no one would dare to say that the Lower Manhattan skyline comes anywhere close to the dramatic, stunning effect of the incomparable Twin Towers — because that is so obviously not true.

We think that anyone who reviews the following plan will see how much more awe-inspiring, respectful, and noble every aspect of the World Trade Center will be when the Twin Towers are finally back where they belong.

Shortly after we launched the Twin Towers Alliance in March of 2006, we spent a day visiting fire stations and police precincts with a packet of information.

At the last stop of the day, a firehouse on the East Side of Manhattan, we told the fireman who answered the door that we were trying to raise awareness of the public’s broad support for rebuilding the Twin Towers.

His reply has fueled this twenty-year-long mission: “There is nothing the guys upstairs would love more…”