Ten years ago today, I was driving into downtown Denver, heading to my office at Schwab. I was dialed into the same news station that always accompanied my drive. Updates came staccato-style. What a tragedy – this malfunctioned plane (or was it pilot error?) that had set one of the Towers ablaze. Then I remember the somber panic of the announcer: This was not an accident. A second plane has just hit the second Tower.
I walked into the fourth floor of the Schwab building. The room was normally a-chatter with brokers doing broker business. But we were all huddled around the TV monitors hanging ever fifteen feet or so from the ceiling. Normally, we had CNBC’s coverage of the market’s pre-bell hype. We watched the flame and ash, the people diving out of windows. We worried about our colleagues in our Trade Center office – had they escaped?
We went to war, or three. Lives have been saved, I’m sure. Lives have also been lost, far more civilians than on that horrid day. What has come of us? Today, I wonder what we’ve learned as a people. What have I learned?
Lord, have mercy on us.