A Date That Will Live in Infamy

So today is 9/11, the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC, D.C., and PA. A lot has happened in the past 13 years, but sadly the constant has been the threat from Islamic terrorists. Back then it was Bin Ladin and his losers, and now it's ISIS and ISIL. It was a beautiful but warm morning in Miami, and I was, as usual, commuting in traffic on US 1. Wifey called me and joked that she was glad my office was on the ground floor of my building, as some dumb pilot just crashed into the World Trade Center in NY. I continued to the office, where Paul and I had a big day: the closing of a major fire case we had settled along with our old boss Ed. The clients came in, and we went over the papers, as glimpses at the office TV told us Wifey's report was no ordinary accident. I called her and she was already on the same page: headed to Pslmetto Middle and Leewood Elementary to fetch the Ds. By early afternoon, we knew that the attacks, awful as they were, were confined to the Northeast, and our families were all home safe. So Ed, ever the pragmatist, suggested Paul and I join him at Morton's Steakhouse, where we had a martini or two to mark the conclusion of the fire case, and then ate great steaks. I felt a bit like a Roman emperor, feasting while the outside world burned, but I kept constant contact with Wifey and the Ds. Fortunately, we didn't know any of the victims. I didn't even know anyone who knew any victims. In a few weeks, things returned to normal -- the Yankees even won the World Series, and the stock market came back. About 5 years ago, I visited Ground Zero. I had visited the Towers as a teen, and the shock to the perspective, to see a huge pit where enormous buildings had been, was a shock. But NYC is NYC -- and commerce ruled. My favorite waa a cart selling halaal food right where the people lined up. So the psychos pulled a very tragic but succesful stunt. That's all it was -- a stunt, using box cutters and the naivete of Americans. My father in law, not a deep thinker, but a man who made it through the Nazi camps, and fought for Israeli independence, has a very simple take on dealing with the terrorists. He says you kill them, and scare them, and you buy yourself a few years of peace, and then they come again. I think he gets it better than much of our State Department, and surely my sweet but simple minded liberal friends, who wonder why the terrorists hate us. I just hope that in the Ds' lifetimes, there will never be another date like 9/11.