Ten Years Ago

Everybody has a story to tell about Sept 11, 2011, and mine is no more important than any other.

But, now that I live in New Hampshire, I realize, I was a little more directly involved than many of my countrymen.

That morning, I had my regular 7 AM conference at Georgetown University, which ended at 8 AM and I had just reached Willard Avenue, a block from my office across the district line in Chevy Chase, Maryland when the news of the first plane came across the radio. By the time I got to my building, the second plane had hit and I knew what this was about. I pulled out my cell phone and tried to phone my son, who we had dropped off at NYU, in Greenwich Village a week earlier.

My son arrived near Washington Square just after the second plane hit the tower and he walked into his class and informed his teacher, who said, "That's very interesting, now let's get on with today's topic." By the time the class ended, both towers were down, and by that time there was no way of reaching my son by cell phone.

I figured he would go to a near by hospital to donate blood. And that is exactly what he did, but we had no way of knowing he was okay until 7 PM, when we got a phone call from some fellow citizen in New Jersey who had taken names and phone numbers along the line of people waiting to donate at the hospital and called to say he had seen our son and he was fine. He spent all day being shuttled from hospital to hospital, trying to donate blood, but all were overwhelmed with people trying to do that, and, as it turned out, there were very few survivors who needed the blood.

My wife, whose office was four blocks from the White House was on the road for 4 1/2 hours getting home. 'That's a twenty minute trip on a weekend. Her cell phone was working. She was frustrated.

My younger son was at his school in the District, a few blocks from my office and he got a ride home.

My predominant emotion that day was anger.

As much as I disliked President Bush, I shared his sense of outrage and his desire to just go in and do something, and let those people in the Gaza strip who were celebrating and handing out candy in the streets get a taste of our anger.

Later, when the guns got aimed at Iraq, I realized you can't just start swinging wildly. When your opponent is cool, smart and thoughtful, you have to think before you start pulling the trigger.

Now, 10 years later, with troops trying to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan, or whatever they are doing there, it looks like Viet Nam all over again. And I realize there is some truth in that old adage: When you go to seek revenge, first dig two graves.