We want to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of John McNeece, a Long island high school senior, who wrote to us on April 20, 2011, encouraging us to “never give up.” It was the letter below that precipated the great changes to the site. Just a day after we posted one of the images John sent us on the homepage, we were contacted by a graphic artist and fervent supporter in the UK, who was inspired to produce his own version of the image. His stunning adaptation of an image widely available on the internet that showcases the current plan can be seen in our new header and on a number of other pages.
He also gave us the comparison images of the current project that we have posted on the To Tell The Truth pages. Now that we are finally able to compare apples to apples (or apples to lemons) we think it will be the beginning of a real shift in the perception of what is and isn’t possible.
Dear Mr. Hughes and Ms. Donovan of the Twin Towers Alliance Foundation,
My name is John McNeece; I’m 18 years of age and live out on Long Island in the beautiful suburban town of Ronkonkoma. Even though I don’t live in the hustle and bustle of the concrete jungle, I’ve have always been madly in love with the city and consider myself a genuine New Yorker. I was born in Flushing, Queens and then moved out to Ronkonkoma when I was two months old. I’ve been living in the same house ever since.
But even at a young age, my fascination with the awe-inspiring New York skyline has met no bounds. Buildings and structures such as The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building and The Statue of Liberty brought tears of joy to my young eyes. But two buildings always took my interests away from the others; they were the Twin Towers.
Just the mere thought of them used to send shivers down my spine as I gazed longingly at the two colossuses of New York City. And I always used to say to myself that someday I would make that very trip to the top of those giants and sit at the perch of the top of the world.
But my dream never came to be. It was shattered on one of the darkest days in American history, when 19 wild-eyed Arabs hijacked planes from Boston to Newark and flew them into the same awesome towers that I always dreamed about. This was both devastating for me and my Father, whose best friend which he had known since childhood Matthew O’Mahoney was a stock broker working for Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower above the impact zone died that terrible day.
My Dad was also a Local 3 electrician and he had been working at Madison Square Garden at the time. My Dad helped thousands get to safety and shelter within the complex. In my opinion, I feel that my Dad was hero for staying there and doing such action, as he could have easily taken the opportunity he had at the time to get out of the city. But enough about my Father at the moment and back to the real agenda at hand.
9/11 changed my world forever like everyone else that day. And even after the months and years that followed, I strongly believed that they would rebuild the Towers. But sadly my hopes were dashed again with the revealing of the New World Trade Center site, along with its ill-conceived centerpiece, the so-called “Freedom Tower”.
At first I was skeptical about the design, but later gained interest in the project, when they were getting ready to rebuild the site at Ground Zero. Since I was still a young kid back then, I was also still very naive. In that same year in 2004, I had a dream, a dream that I was flying over the skies of a near-future version of New York City.
Then I spied something that still takes my breath away till this day. I saw a half-completed Freedom Tower and two new almost finished Twin Towers, which were climbing higher into the heavens with each passing second. I was awed by the sight, and when I woke up, I sadly realized that it was only a dream.
I later dismissed the event as pure fantasy. I said to myself “That can’t possibly happen now; they already have an official design at the site. But that all changed one year later in 2005, when I found out through Donald Trump’s endorsement that there was alternative to the current plan. The plan designed by a New Jersey native “Kenneth Gardner”, was titled the The World Trade Center Phoenix or “Twin Towers 2”.
It consisted of completely rebuilt Twin Towers and a proper memorial to the 9/11 families. This proposal filled me with joy and happiness once more. And even thought the proposal lost coverage after a few weeks, I knew from that day forward that we had a chance to finally do the right thing.
But soon after, delay after delay at Ground Zero from 2006-2008 made me want to vomit. I was so disgusted. “Why is it taking so long!?” I used to say to myself constantly. I mean it only took a year to build the Empire State Building and that was during the Great Depression. Thing’s just didn’t add up and I began to wonder if anything would ever be built down there again.
For those two years I simply lost interest at the site. But that all changed the day I discovered a website that gave me hope again. A website that stated that the game was still on and that nothing was set in stone yet, a website titled “The Twin Towers Alliance”. It was there that I learned about the whole mess down at Ground Zero in its true colors and that “We, The People” were truly being tricked and robbed of a proper memorial and a World Trade Center worthy of Its name.
And since that discovery back in 2008, I’ve been a loyal supporter of the movement ever since. I’ve signed the petition on the site and gave presentations to classes throughout my high school on the issue. And I still continue to the spread the message to my fellow students, teachers, friends, co-workers and family members.
When I recently found out about the current strategy, to cap off the Freedom Tower and to rebuild the Twin Towers beside the 9/11 memorial, which in turn would replace Towers 2, 3 and the Transit Hub, I began to recall my dream again. It all started to make sense now. It was almost like a vision, a gateway into a possible future that can still happen, if we act now.
A capped off Freedom Tower can be renamed World Trade Center building #6, since it make sense because the original Six World Trade was located there. And then with that mess taken care of, 21st-century engineered Twin Towers can once again graze the NYC skyline.
If we can finally succeed in this endeavor, we can not only prove the age-old fact that America can never be truly defeated, but in turn can rise up from its ashes and be born again a hundred times stronger than before. But the main reason behind this struggle is for the American people to still truly matter in a democracy that has stood the test of time itself.
Like you have stated, with this we can finally be in control of our own destinies and begin fresh and anew. Another thing that you guys recently brought to the table was the fact that New York should host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. This, like the World Trade Center has been a dream of mine for a long, long time.
Can you imagine a beautiful opening ceremony in the very heart of the World, the City blazing with pride and excitement, as fireworks blast off the roofs of every major Icon and building that New York has to offer. Including two new 21st-century Twin Towers, which aligned with The Statue of Liberty would echo Freedom, peace and harmony throughout the World.
I know I sure can. Overall I wanted to let you know that the foundation should never give up on this cause. This battle has been raging for far too long now, just too merely quit the fight. And now even more things are at stake, such as our own constitutional rights that we can’t possibly surrender.
Since I’m an amateur/hobbyist graphic designer and animator, attached to this email is a few poster illustrations that I have done for the site as a gift. When I heard that your old graphic designer Alexander Davison recently passed away, I immediately wanted to help out in any way that I possibly could. I hope you like them.
Thank you very much for your time and patience for reading my little letter that I’ve sent here. I wish you guys the best of luck in continuing on with the struggle and seeing It out to the very end. And don’t worry; I’ll still be around every day to check up on site updates lol.
— Sincerely
John F McNeece Jr.
