7 years- still fresh

Stacey and I were reflecting this morning about the phone call I made to her 7 years ago. I had arrived at the office in Cleveland Heights and Andrea Mitchell, who was our Administrative Assistant at the time, said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I told her to turn on the radio and then I called Stacey to see if she could check the cable news for any information.

What a beautiful morning it was. Cool, crisp and clear. I checked my email and was preparing my to do list for the day when Andrea said that there had been a second crash into the building. At that moment, everything stopped. We knew- everyone knew. This was not good. Later that day my mother and father-in-law would take a walk and watch Flight 93 do a major 180 degree turn in the Cleveland sky. There was a nervous tension about everything and so many unanswered questions. What was this attack about? Who was behind it? How many people were in the buildings? How big was this attack? Should we get Raegan out of school? Should I stay at the office or go where I wanted to go-home?

The answers to these questions would slowly unfold over the next several minutes, hours, weeks and years. And so now we look back 7 years ago...7 years! Osama is still out there. A man with a name that rhymes with Osama is looking like he will be President. We've invaded two countries, set up secret prisons around the world, been embarrassed by Abu-ghraib. And we've had no other major terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Iran is now a serious new threat. Oil is the other serious threat. A lot has changed and unchanged in 7 years, some lessons learned, many not.

But for now, we simply take a moment and reflect on that one blue-skied morning 7 years ago when the world as we know it changed forever.