Shameless thread title shamefully stolen from The Post.
I saw the above headline this morning and thought “thank fucking god.” Freedom Tower was always a horrible, horrible, doubleplusungood name. Former governor Pataki insisted on the name, and now, sorta like him, it’s apparently been stricken from memory. I suppose it’s a little ominous that the “freedom” was removed after some of the space was leased to a Chinese company. But then again, at least they didn’t rename it The Harmony Tower.
Was that inspired by the “freedom fries” crowd?
The re-naming of French Fries to Freedom Fries came about when the French Government refused to support the US Governments war with Iraq approx. 1 1/2 years after 11 September 2001: US Congress opts for “freedom fries”.
What right did Pataki have to name the new tower anyway? It is good to see that commonsense has prevailed if it is for commercial reasons.
It’s certainly of the “freedom fries” mindset. Pataki didn’t name the tower himself, he just coined the name and pushed for it. And apparently screwed with the process of choosing the design. Maybe he had the right because the Port Authority or other state agencies were involved, I don’t know.
I do need to correct myself: “No More Freedom” is the Daily News headline. The Post went with “Free Dumb Tower.” That’s at least two thirds correct - the name was dumb, it’s a tower, and if they can’t find any tenants they might have to start giving space away (maybe I can move in if they ever finish building it!). But I think the Daily News wins the headline battle for today.
On the one hand, I don’t care what it’s called as long as it gets built.
On the other hand, Freedom Tower irked me as a name. One World Trade Center is Boring, but at least it isn’t so heavily weighted with Symbolism.
I now and forever will associate the word ‘Freedom’ with George Bush.
And not in a good way.
It was another example of the Rule of Naming: if you have to tell people that you’re free… you aren’t.
Same here. It lost all meaning in the past seven years.
I always pictured Inigo Montoya saying to him, “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” I even had someone make that into an LJ avatar for me. Now I guess I can retire it.
The Port Authority owned the World Trade Center - and that authority is jointly headed by the governors of New York and New Jersey. So there you go.
I propose that it be named Colbert Tower. Who’s with me?
Only if it’s in the form of an online vote.
In a long ago thread on this topic someone posted, “Is that Freedom Tower? Well, turn it UP!” 
For that reason alone, I liked the name.
Seriously.
Along those lines though, I predict a very humorous new Colbert Report on Monday. Between him winning the NASA competition and this, it’ll be non-stop gold!
In the same sense that calling a country “The People’s Democratic Republic of _____” indicates that it is not run by its people, it is not democratic, and it is not a republic?
I think One World Trade Center is even more weighted, personally. But weighted in exactly the right way. I’m really happy about this change. Now if they would just build a giant Buddha on the top it would be perfect.
The right-wing loonies are gonna be up in arms over the “One World” part.
As a New Yorker, I am so damn glad to see it called One World Trade. It’s exactly the name it deserves, stronger and better than Freedom Tower.
One World Trade Center seems perfect to me as well. The name stands strong in the face of terrorism.
I’m glad they changed it. Freedom Tower is just tacky.