The Two Towers, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #291 | @MDWorld

September 10, 2012 Mike Gold 1 Comment

Tomorrow is the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist bombings of the east coast of the United States. I know you know that.

The good news is, the replacements at the site of the original World Trade Center in lower Manhattan are nearing completion. The bad news – and, yes, I can’t let go of this – is that it’s been eleven years and the place hasn’t been rebuilt. That is a crime. It dishonors all Americans.

It only took eighteen months to build the Empire State Building. That one came in a month early and five million dollars under budget, back when five million dollars was a lot more substantial than a blur on the deficit clock.

It took a little more than four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge.

It actually took twelve years to build the Colossus of Rhodes. I give them dispensation because they had a passel of good excuses. It was 2,292 years ago, long before hydraulics, earth-movers, Federal Express, insurance companies or math. But they did have bureaucracy.

So what took us so long to build a replacement World Trade Center? First and foremost, it was a lot easier to overcome bureaucracy in 280 BC than it is in 2012 AD. I admit that the easiest and most appealing way to deal with mindless red tape is to slice through it with a sword and an imperial imperative. But even if we had taken arms against federal, two-state, county, municipal and military bureaucrats, it would take longer than eleven years to dice enough of them. They’re like amoebas.

Then there are the insurance companies. These people tell us that if we give them our money (often mandated by law), they will pay for things if it all goes wrong. What insurance companies mean by that is, you pay your money and if things go wrong they will tell you to get fucked.

And so we have been.

The insurance companies that covered the original WTC said they would only pay for one building because there was only one attack. Well, I counted two manned bombs, spaced about a half hour apart. These bombs hit two buildings; the resultant damage destroyed or undermined several others.

Ergo, the insurance people are a bunch of thieves that would make Al Capone shake his head in disbelief. This is not a shock, but it is a shame. The insurance industry is a pox that should be destroyed; its honchos should be incarcerated.

Of course politics plays a role in all of this. So do well-meaning support groups who wish to make certain their memories are respected in the manner they so desire. Sadly, many of these resolutions are mutually exclusive and even if they weren’t, there isn’t enough space or money to incorporate them all. It’s harsh to say these folks were greedy, but it’s 2012 and quite a number of the parents, grandparents, spouses, and even children have died waiting for the building to be completed.

We seem to have lost our concept of compassion for the greater good, consumed by what the great late newspaper columnist Mike Royko referred to decades ago as our real national motto: ubi est mea.

When it comes to 9-11, we are told we must never forget. I quite agree. There is a lot we shouldn’t forget.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com , every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week (check the website above for times) and available On Demand at the same place. He also joins Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.