I was at work when it happened. I was on my computer and heard a great "bo-oo-oom" sound that sounded like a big Semi hiting a bumb on the highway (FDR Drive) outside my window. I looked out, saw nothing, went back to work. 15 min. later, there was another "bo-ooo-oom" sound. Looked out, saw nothing, went back to work.

Probably a good 30 min. later I went down to another lab and someone told me two planes had hit the WTC. Like everyone else I first thought small planes, freak accident. When I realized it meant large planes, one per building...and those buildings were coming down, I knew we were at war. Didn't know who, but I knew we were at war. We then realized that the husband of one of our co-workers worked in the WTC. We called to find out he hadn't been heard from. He never was heard from and only about a year later were any remains identified.

Then came the realization--I'm at work in Manhattan, I didn't know where my wife was, and my daughter was at school in Brooklyn. They had closed all the tunnels and bridges. I was trappend on an island and my daughter was across the East River. Managed to get in touch with my wife--she had been on her way to work when the first plane hit. She happened to be in the subway just under the WTC at the time and at the next stop people got on in a panic having just seen what had happened. She went on to work, then contacted me.

By then no trains were running. She made her way, partly by bus, partly walking, to where I worked (it's next to a hospital and closer to home, so it made sense). Meanwhile I had spent time walking outside watching the mass migration uptown. The entire city was moving North to get away from the area. I checked out the nearby ferry and found it was running to Queens, so at least we could get acorss to Long Island and walk to Brooklyn from there.

Turned out that wasn't neccessary. By the time my wife made it to the medical center, trains were running again and we made it back to Brooklyn. When we came out of the station, ashes were falling all over our neighborhood, coating the cars. Realizing what those ashes were--not just buildings but people--we were deeply disturbed. We picked up our daughter and made our way home to start the long vigil watching TV. Our only break from obsessively watching those images was to go for dinner. We intentionally picked a neighborhood restaurant run by Muslims because we knew there was already an anti-Muslim sentiment growing, though mostly not in NYC.

That is what I remember. Karl Rove was not here. Karl Rove does not have a fucking clue what he is talking about. Bill Clinton was eager to go after al Qaeda and he might have prevented the whole thing. Who stopped him? The Republican congress who cried "wag the dog" and refused to back him. Believe me, I blame the Republicans for failing to back Clinton and failing to protect us. And now that Karl Rove has shot off his mouth, Bush has backed him, and Bloomberg and Pataki have failed to stand up for NYC, I am determined to take them down. I am ready to fight the bastards like I have never fought before.