WHAT NOT TO MEMORIALIZE AT GROUND ZERO

The Times' architectural critic Herbert Muschamp criticized the plans for failing to provide "any sign of recognition that ground zero has become a tragic symbol of the troubled relationship between the United States and the rest of the world."

It's hard to imagine a statement that could misunderstand the legacy of 9/11 more. To the extent that the United States has a "troubled relationship" with the rest of the world - it that part of the world that lives in tyranny and darkness. 9/11 does not impose upon us a duty of self-flaggelation and repetence - it impose on us a duty of solidarity and resolve. We must export our culture of freedom, tolerance and love of life to the rest of the world, or it will export its culutre of death and intolerance to our shores.

Whatever is rebuild upon the WTC site needs to celebrate the memories of those whose lives were brutally cut short by the terror attacks. But we need to honor the lives, not the deaths of those we lost that day. The Times and others are carping about the Port Authorities efforts to restore the site as a major commerical center in Lower Manhattan. In there defeatist elitism, they prefer the site be kept as a well-tended, mournful graveyard. This thinking forgets where we are - New York is not Jerusalem. Commerce is not sacreligous here - it the city's religion. There is no better way to signify this city's resiliance and this nation's defiance than to rebuild the site as a vibrant commerical center. Let our enemies celebrate death. We shall celebrate life.