Randall Balmer's article on Religion Dispatches argues that the lower Manhattan is 'sacred space', but not only because of what happened there a decade ago. That the twin trade towers were attacked is not trivial, but these were chosen as targets because they already were symbolic of American ideals. He writes:
"Whether they knew it or not, then, the terrorists who guided those fuel-gorged jets into the World Trade Center were targeting the very heart of America—not because of the buildings’ association with business or commerce, but because their location in lower Manhattan has long symbolized America’s noblest ideals."
So what mattered, or matters, most is not the trade towers but rather their location and what that location points to about Americans' self-perception, not what others take us to be. Balmer is on to something worth thinking about both for our understanding of America and Americans and for our understanding of what grounds the sense that a location has sacred character.
Randall Balmer's article on Religion Dispatches argues that the lower Manhattan is 'sacred space', but not only because of what happened there a decade ago. That the twin trade towers were attacked is not trivial, but these were chosen as targets because they already were symbolic of American ideals. He writes:
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