There are days that I purely hate the image that my beloved country presents not only to the world, but to me and my fellow Americans. Witness this.
I really don't care so much about the name "Freedom Tower" being lost. It was an insult to the lives lost on 9/11 that the site of the Twin Towers wasn't consecrated as a memorial to those people and left alone. No, it was dedicated as a temple to commerce, and now the sop of the first skyscraper name is being thrown aside as the temple is rededicated.
Contrast this to the Gettysburg National Military Park. Or to the Bayonne Teardrop, a memorial to the 9/11 victims by a Russian sculptor.
To New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was quoted thus in the CNN.com story I cited above: From a patriotic point of view, is it going to make any difference? Yes, Mr. Mayor, it is going to make a difference. We do not become any safer, nor do we become any more solid a people, when naked commerce wins at the expense of the memory of lives stolen by people who hate us.
