On I-5 north of Seattle on my way to a meeting in LaConner. The first radio report lacked detail, and I mistakenly assumed it was a small private plane, like a Cessna, and maybe the pilot had a heart attack and the plane ran into the building. Just as the radio was explaining that the plane was a commercial airliner, and I was thinking, "how could that even happen?" the announcer said a second airliner just crashed into the second tower. In that instant, everyone who heard the report knew the nation was under attack.

The meeting seemed far less than consequential, but we went through the motions. I stopped in N. Seattle on my way home that evening for a second meeting that had sports bar TVs next to it, so we went and watched all the repeat news for an hour or so, and I began to feel the immensity of the attack.

I called my oldest daughter who lives in DC, and she said she couldn't get to work that morning because she has to cross a bridge near the Pentagon, and the bridge was closed. She could see the fire at the Pentagon, and turned around and went home.

I was initially impressed with how the event galvanized unity among Americans, and then watched in disbelief as Congress passed the Patriot Act, giving the terrorists their first win. Then I was outraged as Bushco squandered the national unity by polarizing the nation into the camp that supported the irrational attack on Iraq against the rationalists who opposed it and preferred that the nation remain focused on those who planned the attack, since the attackers were all dead.

Sg