I was actually on my way to one of the World Trade Center buildings, where the Court of Claims used to be located, when the first plane hit. I missed that, because I was on the 4 Train (subway), but when I got off at Fulton Street (about 5 blocks away) I called my Secretary Kim on my cell phone to tell her one of the Twin Towers was on fire. She told me that a commuter plane had hit the tower (which was the initial report) and as I crossed Fifth Avenue at Fulton Street I remember commenting "what kind of idiot pilot hits a building?" when I heard an enormous explosion and simultaneously heard my secretary scream through the phone, looked up and saw the fireball from the second plane's impact less than five blocks away. I didn't know what to think. I asked Kim whether she thought I should continue to court or head back to the office, and she gave me some great advice: "Get back on the subway and get the H@ll out of Manhattan - this is a terrorist attack!" I caught what must have been one of the last subways out of Manhattan back to my office in downtown Brooklyn. I remember watching the towers fall from Suite 2710 at 26 Court Street. When the cloud of debris and dust from the falling towers crossed the East River you couldn't even see the other end of the Brooklyn Bridge. I knew my then fiancee, now wife, was safely in Queens making a court appearance, so I called her family to tell them she was allright (I figured she would forget, and I was right). What I really remember was the fear and uncertainty over the next week or so. Trying to contact friends and loved ones who worked in the area. My best friend Billy's wife nancy was safe - they were so overjoyed that I became a godfather almost exactly 9 months later. Sadly, our dear friend George's younger brother didn't make it out - his body was never found, and the family had to bury a photograph.
For me, however, the saddest thing is that as I see it, the terrorists won. They wanted to cause such fear that America would dramatically change for the worse, and it worked. We gave up hard fought for and earned freedoms 200+ years in the making in the stroke of the president's pen on the Patriot Act, and many Americans still approach life with the addage "what will keep us safe" formost on their minds.
I see it differently. They caught us with our pants down, and it will never happen again. We don't need a Patriot Act, or a Department of Homeland Security, we need to be brave and alert, and the next time someone tries to take over a plane with a boxcutter knife, the terrorist will face 100+ tough angry and vengeful Americans, who will shove the boxcutter up said terrorist's @ss.
