Nightglow Window

The Long Look Back

Five years ago today I came downstairs and flipped on the TV and didn't move for five hours. It was the worst morning I could ever remember.

I remember that my big act of defiance was going to work the next day and writing a story about the San Diego ASR show--even though it seemed like the most pointless and useless thing in the world.

Getting on a plane to go to Surf Expo in Orlando on September 19 wasn't easy, but it was another act of defiance against the madness and evil I had seen. I remember quite clearly looking out the window almost the entire five hours coming back from Florida. I felt a love for my country on that day that I never felt before, and unfortunately haven't really felt since.

Ah, the opportunites squandered. 2,671 U.S. troops dead in Iraq. 336 in Afghanistan. But has our government brought us any closer, by even one step, to an end to this mess?



September 19, 2001: the view that many were so afraid of turned out to be nothing to be scared of at all.