REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE NEW YORK POST:

Today, I can tell you that there is a palpable sense of hope and renewal at Ground Zero that was crystallized by Saturday morning's September 11th Memorial & Museum's planting of the first group of swamp white oaks.

The approximately 5-year-old trees are now about 20 feet high and are set into mini pits on Memorial Plaza about 20 feet apart. In a few years, they will spread their branches to form a great canopy of shade over the entire plaza.

Each of the 416 eventually 85-foot-tall oaks will someday produce massive amounts of giant acorns. And if each of the hundreds of thousands of tourists takes just one home and plants it in his yard or at a local park or school or house of worship -- mosque or otherwise -- it will distribute the message of hope and renewal around the world.

Now that's spreading the love.

LOIS WEISS - NEW YORK POST September 1, 2010

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