“Keep moving mountains, keep growing wings, keep dreaming…”
With those words, Philippe Petit accepted an award at the 2008 Sundance Festival ceremonies for his work on the documentary “Man on Wire.” When Mr. Petit, one of the earliest signers of the Twin Towers Alliance petition, spent almost an hour dancing on a wire between the Twin Towers in 1974, he epitomized the courage and joy that dreaming no small dreams requires and inspires.
His producer, James Marsh, calls his astonishing performance a denial of death, life-affirming. Philippe Petit simply says he has a “life wish.” This interview with the amazing Philippe Petit is a perfect prologue to our tribute to the towers he fell in love with.
Just as the Twin Towers beckoned to Philippe Petit to do the unthinkable and barely imaginable, so they beckon to us to have the vision, faith, and guts to keep on dreaming and striving against all odds until they are back where they belong — because the Towers deserve another chance, and so do we.
This tribute is dedicated to all who reject the scheme to abandon those two unforgettable towers and who oppose plans to stick four nothing-special buildings in their place. Nothing could ever replace them, except for better versions of themselves. They were glamorous, awe-inspiring, and comforting. After being away, they were the lights of home. We want them back.
Goethe said: “Dream no small dreams, for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” That advice played a key role in building the original towers. The head of the Port Authority at the time, Austin Tobin, used to repeat a variation of it every chance he got. And that is the spirit that built New York.
The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building and the Twin Towers were all born of the same exuberant, extravagant, extraordinary spirit. They complemented each other — and complimented each other — for being the best of the best. Please send a link of this video to everyone you think might appreciate seeing it. You can help bring the lights of the World Trade Center back to New York! 9/8/18 Note: YouTube disabled the music track of “Rhapsody in Blue” for copyright infringement — but provided no information on whom we can contact to address the matter. After hundreds of thousands of views, it is hard to fathom why it couldn’t have been handled differently, but we will pursue a resolution later this year.
Back in 2008 or 2009, we received an extraordinary email from a supporter with more or less the same idea for a tribute to the Twin Towers and he wrote such a thoughtful and passionate tribute to the Towers that we are including it here. The young man, Gerry Bugallo, was 18 at the time and starting his last year of high school in Geneva, Switzerland. His father is a diplomat and Gerry has lived most of his life abroad, but spent his first years in New York, “with a view of the Twin Towers from my apartment and dining in ‘Windows on the World’ practically once a month.” And now, “every time I visit New York, I just can’t shake the feeling that, while still the greatest city on Earth, it is somehow incomplete. I hope we can do something about that.” Gerry included the images that follow to help him in making his case:
  
It is hard to understand how some people can understand so keenly the scope of the blunder that is underway, while others are oblivious to the big picture. It goes so far beyond being a matter of taste or opinion and into the realm of denial. His email brings to mind the piece by Georgia college student Justin Ove: “Rebuilding the Twin Towers Transcends Politics” which was another remarkable example of muscular idealism. This issue is a great example of the idealism of youth that some people manage to keep as they mature — proving that cynicism isn’t a function of maturity as much as it is a sign of aging and a loss of zest for life. That’s not likely to ever be Gerry’s problem:
How about an internet ad (or even better, a TV ad, but that might be too expensive), Sinatra’s “New York, New York” or maybe “Rhapsody in Blue” as background music and a series of grandiose shots and clips of New York and its skyline, soon focusing on the towers from all angles.
A voice reads: New York City, the center of the world, the city that doesn’t sleep, the modern Rome. A symbol of America’s greatness and with it, the greatness of mankind. For a century it has stood magnificently on the edge of the New World as testimony that there is no power superior to the human will. The will that brought our fathers to this land to become part of its history, the will that drove men to build the Empire State Building defying death and fear as they balanced on girders a thousand feet off the ground. Six years ago today, our wills were tested, as the tallest skyscrapers in New York, the icons of all we stand for and what our city stands for, came tumbling down like a giant stung by a scorpion, as did the lives of 2974 men, women and children. The cowardly murderers responsible wanted one thing, and one thing only, this was, the inauguration of a slow but relentless process of moral bleeding of the American people so that, someday they may be able to extort us.
The reasons Al Qaeda had for targeting the Twin Towers include the publicity an attack on the landmark had to offer, the vulnerability an attack of that magnitude in the heart of Downtown Manhattan was supposed to make us feel, and the amount of human sacrifice to be reaped; but the most important reason of all they had for destroying the Twin Towers was the fact that they didn’t want them there. The Twin Towers, just like the Empire State building, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Statue of Liberty are, and always will be a part of New York, and in so being, they are a temple to reason, liberty, courage, beauty, and a true God, one whose worshippers, call him what they may, build cities like New York instead of attempting to destroy them. The Twin Towers are a legend, the towers so tall they could make the tallest city on Earth seem flat, and they are a beacon that all good men could look up at for strength. In so being, they were also an insult to our dishonorable enemies who hate us because we are better and they are worse, staring at the towers’ majesty, standing neath their long shadows, they would cower in angry fear like Satan before a cathedral, all the while recognizing the power such a monument possessed, and understanding that a country where the Twin Towers stood would never be conquered.
So they struck at our wills through the symbol that sustains them, expecting to fill us with fear and hopelessness. But a symbol cannot be destroyed with sticks and stones, those of us who believed in what the Twin Towers stood for, still do and their memory sustains us. But man’s mission is not merely to endure physical loss with inner strength, but also to use this strength to shape the physical World he lives in, that we live in. To make it something beautiful and meaningful. The reason Al Qaeda did not truly destroy the Twin Towers is the fact that we are still here, and the Towers stand within us. Now it is our duty to show that the Twin Towers survived by rebuilding them just as they were, just where they were, ten stories higher and with a more powerful structure. When they are finished, the alabaster and steel titans will once more stand, proud and undefeated over America, to become a symbol to our children and our children’s children too, and say, as long as we are here, no terrorist slime will ever change New York’s skyline.
After September 11, the Twin Towers have acquired a new significance, they are now, as former targets of the terrorists, to represent our mighty wrath against them, our resistance to their terror, if we make the right decision and rebuild them. But if on the contrary we replace them with a new and meaningless structure, this so-called `Freedom Tower` an indecent idol to cowardice with only its 69 bottom floors manned for dread of another attack, shorter than the World Trade Center was as if stunted by shame. Then, we let them take the Coliseum from our Rome, the terrorists will have achieved their objective.
Rebuild the Twin Towers, New York will provide the brave men and women to occupy every story, the martyrs of 9/11 will have the best possible memorial on this Earth, and our city will be whole again.
Just imagine, once again gazing at the Twin Towers, resuscitated, as they preside the unbroken skyline we grew up with.
It’s never too late to make the right choice.
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