The New Era - All about Sweet Home since 1929

Significant public events have a way of searing themselves into our memories.

My mother, now in her mid-80s, remembers the exact moment she heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

Likewise, I remember Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001, when I awoke to the sound of our telephone ringing. It was my brother, who lived in Japan.

"Turn on your TV," he said. "Something bad's happened."

My wife Miriam and I did and, of course, before our wondering eyes appeared the images of the burning towers of the World Trade Center, objects of the worst terrorist attack on the U.S. in history –...