Freedom?

The ongoing fiasco at Ground Zero has taken a surreal turn. First, we've replaced the "Freedom Tower" (itself a marginally beautiful design) with a widely despised bunker/tower combination, the first 200 feet of which is windowless concrete. From an architecture and urban planning standpoint, imagine the street presence of that building. It screams "we're afraid" rather than "we're free." Santiago Calatrava's PATH station has been redesigned with internal concrete pillars and fewer windows, out of fear of bombings. Now, the International Freedom Center is facing eviction from the Cultural Center because survivors and next of kin don't want anything that might be "anti-American" or "unpatriotic" on display. One suggestion was that any materials be reviewed by an outside committee before it could be put on display.

I hope I'm not the only one who feels queasy that America has come to the point that artistic and historical material must be censored before being displayed at the "Freedom Center." The irony of the Freedom Center being anything but free is stomach churning.

The article in the New York Times has additional information.