The Enslavement of the Freedom Tower

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The opinions reflected in this OpEd are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, faculty and students of The King's College.

Most Kings’ students were not born in New York. Many of them came from North Carolina, Texas, California, Ohio and other places within and without the United States. Yet they are all various shades of “New Yorker,” and within months of moving here, the significance of 9/11 was made very clear to every single one.

On every Sept. 11, for the last 20 years, a drunken city sobers up, an addicted city gets clean, Mets and Yankees fans join hands. For one day, for one moment, the city that never sleeps... stops. 

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: everyone can tell you where they were and what they were doing when it happened. 

To this day, One World Trade Center stands defiant. Waterfalls sink into the former foundations of the North and South Towers. Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden believed the attack would debunk the myth of American tenacity. He thought we would crumple “like paper tigers.” Reflected in the steel mirror of the Freedom Tower is the very legend Bin Laden tried to shatter. It shows we aren’t afraid...

On Sept. 10, 2021, several King’s students considered arranging to stay off-campus with friends. Police informed King’s faculty that students may not be able to enter Devos Hall, starting at 5 a.m. the next morning to 3 p.m. that evening. 

The weekend prior, a convoy of patrol cars lined the curbside. A small army of officers walked the beat down Greenwich, Wall Street and Broadway. Sprinkled among the ocean of blue were men in ink-black suits wearing corded earpieces, a solemn expression on all their faces mixed with tension or fear. Either that, or a blank, clocked-out look behind helmets and sunglasses, as if they’re just “doing a job.”

Constant security is a common sight at the One World Trade Center, but this afternoon the Memorial looked fortified, as if it’s under threat. Is it? 

Since 2001, multiple extremist militants have attempted commemorative attacks every Sept. 11, none of which have taken place in New York. In the last 20 years, no terrorist hijacking of any U.S. flight has even been attempted, let alone successful. 

There are many subtle, understated methods of protecting people: undercover cops, offering tickets with background checks, pre-screening air traffic within a certain radius of the tower. Instead, the morning of the 11th featured a deliberate show of force, risking the alienation of those who mourn both terrorism and the War on Terror. After all, this spectacle implies the existence of an enemy — one close by. Does that make you feel safe?

Twenty years ago, 3,000 innocent New Yorkers were killed. When those firefighters, police officers, businessmen and women, janitors and tourists look down from the Kingdom of God, they will see their resting place turned into a cordon. And they will see us. What will they find us doing? Honoring their memory, certainly, but I hope they also see us living our lives unintimidated; living our lives free from fear. 

Those individuals in the NYPD, and any other private or federal security simply did their duty. But this reporter implores the Mayor, Governor, Police Commissioner and other leaders of New York to rethink the way they protect the 9/11 Memorial, for it undermines that very ideal for which the Freedom Tower is named.