I got a call from my gf at the time and she told me to turn on the TV. I was in awe. I felt sick and sad. Sad for the people that lost their lives in the plane, sad for the people that lost their lives on the ground, sad for those with loved ones, sad for our country, and sad at the inevitability of people using the event to further their own agendas.

I remember going to fish the lower Hoh in the days after 9/11, in large part to just "get away". I remember being out there and hearing/seeing a jet fly over. Normally, that wouldn't even register but there had been no planes in the air for days and I just sat down and watched it until I could no longer see it.

I remember being disappointed as a wave of simplistic, blind anger began to replace the confusion and sadness we all felt. Chinese-made pro-America bumberstickers took over the cars and fear and paranoia lead to some horrible decisions.

Perhaps one of the few good things to come of those events is the Americans will NEVER allow planes to be hijacked like that again. Any one of us would be willing to rip the throat out of a terrorist attempting such a thing.

I have the deepest appreciation for our emergency service workers who stepped up to the call. That includes firefighters, police, and EMTs. Many of those people gave their lives trying to save would could have been any of us. And ones that didn't give their lives that day surely took years off their life due to the toxic conditions and emotional scars they certainly acquired.