I used to work in the World Trade Center. 55th floor, and I could see the lights at Yankee stadium on a clear night. By 1990 I had moved on, and on Sepember 11, 2001 I lived in Naperville with my wife and 3 daughters.
On that day I remember hearing on the radio as I parked my car that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and I immediately thought it was some idiot in a private plane. I didn't listen further, so only learned when my wife called about the attacks.
Later, at home I watched with her, and remember the most heart wrenching moment when the first tower fell and the officer from the fire department turned to say that hundreds of "his people" didn't get out in time. They had gone up the stairs, into the fire. And they did not come home.
I felt the sadness and the rage,and the tears. My yougest daughter was afraid, America was under attack. I told her that America couldn't be destroyed this way, that no bunch of ragheads in caves could destroy America, only we could do that if we forgot what we were all about.
I remember that I, we, would have done anything asked after that day. We would have done it all together. We would have given blood, enlisted, switched to electric cars, paid off our debts or raised our taxes. All we needed was someone to demand it of us, someone who loved America more than his power, more than his ideology, more than his party. All we needed was a leader.
And when Bush spoke it was all so wrong. He wasn't asking, he was promising. He wasn't challenging us to dig out the most dangerous flaws in our security and economy, he was telling us to go shopping. I knew then he would use September 11 to devide us, not unite us. He would use September 11 to increase his power, not ours. He would use it to enrich his supporters and punish his enemies, and he would never understand the moment that he let pass by for America.
We seem to have another moment. We have a chance, perhaps a last chance, to change course. It will not be easy, but God help our children if we fail.