Thursday, May 19, 2005
Team America: F*ck Yeah!
You probably already know about the remarks made by PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi at the Columbia Business School where she compared the U.S. of A. to the middle finger and pretty much accused us all of flipping the bird to the whole freaking world [in depth coverage at Powerline].
I have considered her remarks, and come to the conclusion that maybe she has a point. Maybe we Americans in our every day lives do tend tell the rest of the world where to stick it. Unintentionally of course. Which got me to thinking about some other stuff.
In case you haven’t heard, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center isn’t going so well. Redevelopment has pretty much ground to a halt. Donald Trump has stepped into the quagmire and offered his brilliant analysis—rebuild the towers, bigger, better, and stronger [in depth coverage at Ace of Spades]. I agree with the Trumpster, mostly.
I think we should take Ms. Nooyi’s remarks to heart and replace the WTC with a symbol showing the world what it means to be American, that shows our strength and resolve. Something that gives shape to Ms. Nooyi’s vision of America and all that we stand for, even during these dark days of the War on Terror.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the new, improved World Trade Center a la Nooyi.
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Comments & Trackbacks
Ha! That’s fucking perfect. Too bad The Donald will never go for it, it lacks “class”.
Donald Trump always comes through with good ideas. They should just let him be in charge of construction, he’s the best around when it comes to high-rise buildings. We need to put up two buildings that say “We are still here!” We shouldn’t put up some lousy glass tower that shows everyone how the terrorists beat us.
::: diet coke spouting from my nose as I laugh and feel pain all at the same time :::
The original WTC, built as it was during the days of the last gasps of “urban renewal” destroyed the street grid and made that portion of the city an office park of the mid-century Le Corbusier variety. Any new proposals should restore the street grid and include a good amount of housing.
“In order to create the 16-acre World Trade Center site, five streets were closed off and 164 buildings were demolished. Construction required the excavation of more than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth, which was used to create 23.5 acres of land along the Hudson River, now part of Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.”
Instead of trying to make a statement they should be trying to make the place a genuine city where streets are alive and people are there 24 hours a day. Of course, I’m not a New Yorker, so I’ll leave it up to them.
I think the Trump design recognizes Patrick’s concerns (but I could be way wrong). The new towers will not be in the footprints of the old, and could conceivably be built out of the way of the streets.
I once did a series of posts where the titles followed a theme: “Ever get the feeling the ____ hates you?” followed by a link to some Photoshopped image appropriate to whatever I had put in the blank, and the words, “Maybe it does.” There was a surprisingly large amount of fodder.
But for Remy’s image I would have to tone it down just a tad: “Ever get the feeling America doesn’t give a damn what you think?”
Thanks McGehee, good line.
I want to note that that is not “my” image. It belongs to the website where it sits. I believe it’s been floating around since just after 9/11. I should have made that clear in my post. I wish I’d thought of it though.