Seven years ago, I got a phone call from my father-in-law, who said turn on your TV.

Probably an hour later, I call my brother and told him the same thing.

Just an unbelievable day! When the tower went, my heart went out to all the people who died! Still, unbelieved. It changed our world!

Osama did not think he would do so much damage from what I heard, what a asshole!

I was in my office early. One of my co-workers came in and told me a plane had hit one of the twin towers. We have a tv in another office and we started watching the horror.

It was war come home to our doorsteps. Most of us recognized that fact immediately and our world changed. It was the Pearl Harbor of our time.

It was such a surreal day. I think the only other days that have put me in a state of shock like that have been days where tragedy has hit a lot closer to home. I think it took a few days before it sunk in that it was real. It just didn't seem possible.

My dad compared it to the day the Nazis rolled into town.

I woke to my radio alarm at 6:45 talking about a plane hitting a building. I ran out to the living room and told hubby to turn the channel on the t.v. (first and last time he has watched VH1).

We went to work--I was working in the bookstore at the time. The mall manager told us to close. I'll never forget the last customer in the store, a female in the cooking section, who was very reluctant to leave. I was about ready to smack her with Betty Crocker. Customer says, 'oh, are you closing because of the war?' with a smirk on her face. I go yeah, something like that.

Oh, the humanity.

I woke up in my recliner (prior to getting my C-PAP breathing machine, I ended up there often due to my horrible snoring) prior to my long drive to Spokane for a conference. At first I thought, "sucks to be you, flyer of that plane that screwed up and accidently hit a building".

Before long I realized it was much, much more.

I was President of Rehabilitation Enterprises of Washington at the time and at the meeting it was difficult for all of us to concentrate. The drive over was filled with radio news accounts trying to figure out what was going on. The second plane had collided before I left, but the building hadn't collapsed, yet.

The meeting was very somber of course... it is forever seered. It is too bad we diverted resources from getting the bastards that did it.

I woke up early, but a good year or two could pass without my turning on the t.v., so I eventually found this note from my mom:

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From: [mom]
Subject:Turn your news on
Date: September 11, 2001 7:05:32 AM PDT
To: [me]

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When you get this turn your news on and see what's happening!

Mom
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Crap, so you didn't see it on t.v., live.

Might have been a good thing for your mental health.

When I heard it on the radio news, I was ready to sign up to wreak some return vengeance on those who did it. I was completely pissed off. If I'd heard that they'd dropped a nuke on Al-Q's lap, I'd have felt it justified.

Then our elected officials decided to wreak that vengeance on someone else. I'm still just as completely pissed off, but I'm conflicted at who I'm more pissed off at; the ones who did it, or the ones that knowingly let them get away and used the crime and the subsequent pretend search for the perpetrators as an excuse to pursue an illicit geopolitical agenda.

I stopped trusting our government to conscientiously search for the perpetrators about 6 years ago - about the time that the US government sent US government anthrax to decision makers to extort them into supporting authoritarianism.

Oh. That's right. "A lone scientist" did it using his anthrax strain but with US government processing machinery from a different secure lab. I forget the official story occasionally.

I've been pissed off since they immediately declared it a "war" as opposed to mass murders by a bunch of thugs.

I still think the best message we could have sent to the terrorists of the world would have been to totally marginalize Al-Qaeda by hunting them down like common criminals, bringing them back to the States in chains, trying and convicting them, and throwing them in the deepest darkest holes in the Supermax prison to rot for the rest of their lives.

Declaring "war" on them just gave them instant legitimacy.

It also justified demonizing opponents. "You're against our troops in a time of war?"

And, being 'in a war' justifies damn near anything, right?