This photograph to me perfectly captures the savagery of that day. I was working for a startup that was about to miss its first payroll. My wife called to tell me our son, who was 14, I think, came and told her that something big was happening: the first plane crashing.
I have no idea what I did for the rest of the day. I suspect I just kept hacking away at porting DHCP server to our idiosyncratic operating system. Things I do remember clearly:
1. The following Sunday was the most heavily attended church service that I could recall.
2. President Bush giving one of the strongest speeches of his career. Bush had always tried to come across as an "Aw, shucks" Texas country bumpkin. When he needed to do Leader of the Free World, he could and did. Even a friend from Texas who hated him for that country bumpkin act agreed that he did a fine job addressing the nation.
3. That Saturday, our local paper, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, solved the sudden shortage of American flags by printing a full color back page.
4. There was a unanimity of purpose for a month or two that was doubtless what Americans felt after Pearl Harbor.
5. Canadians in Gander took in thousands of Americans whose flights were interrupted by the ground stop. We will always be grateful for that. We really want to be on good terms with Canada again.
Unfortunately, what people born after 9/11 know, if anything at all about it is likely:
1. We had it coming.
2. Bush did it.
3. The Jews did it.
4. It does not matter because this is "stolen land."
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