Ask Her If She Wants to Stay a While

Thanks to a generous gift by Mr. Coleman Greer Griffith, I have started reading the 9/11 commission Report. Surprisingly, it is interesting reading so far. The first portion of the book details the actual events of that horrific day from the hijackers entering the airports, their passage through security checkpoints, and the actual events that transpired on the planes as they were turned in highly explosive guided missiles.

It is amazing to read the accounts of the security personnel at the airports about their interaction with the eventual hijackers. It is hard for me to remember the pre-9/11 security level at airports. I take it for granted that you always had to take off your shoes, and that when I get on a plane, I immediately look around at other people (everyone, not just males with an Arab appearance) and size them up, deciding if I could take them out if the rubber meets the road. The people in the nice white shirts and blue ties with white stripes have always been there checking people with metal detecting wands so that they don't accidentally carry fingernail clippers onto the plane. I can hardly even remember the days when I watched my favorite 24-hour news channel, and that annoying scrolling headline bar at the bottom of the screen did not cause my Dad to tape a piece of construction paper to our TV.

We were probably headed from some kind of non-clandestine conflict with terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda anyway, but 9/11 was the seminal event that turned the national consciousness to the distant reach of Bin Laden's network of terror. It will probably be the day that my children and grandchildren ask me about when I grow old and gray-headed. In much the same way that I talk to my parents about November 22, 1963, my descendants will wonder about the events of September 11, 2001.