This letter is in response to the Jan. 14 column, “The humbling effect of the tumbling towers” by Ayrel Clark. Miss Clark, I was wondering, by what means do you have the right to judge the people of New York City?

If you had done more research, you would have known that all plans without a memorial site would have been thrown out the window instantly.

Do you know what the towers meant to New York and her citizens? They were more than just buildings, more than some pretty lights in a skyline when you’re flying in at night or standing on the other side of the Hudson looking east.

Those buildings are part of the heart and soul of New York City, as much as the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Met and every other famous and tourist attraction New York has. When I go home now, I have an empty feeling, a hole in my heart that is aching to be filled, wanting to see some sort of normality.

Without some sort of tall building there, it will always be empty, and I am not the only New Yorker that feels that way. My family, friends and everyone I know who has had those buildings in their lives thought those towers were more than buildings.

It is hard to put into words what those buildings meant to me as a New Yorker, but I lost a lot on that day. More than the people I lost, I lost New York that day. For many of us, New York will always have an open wound as long as there is a crater in the ground. Please do not judge us New Yorkers for just wanting to put our home back together.

Marco Benitez

Sophomore

Animal Ecology