I am sure that as everyone surfs the Internet for the next few days, folks will be discussing where they were on September 11, 2001. Just to get that out of the way - Tam was at school, I was at home watching it all on t.v.

As a native New Yorker, I probably have a different perspective on the attacks than most of the folks who live where we do. This was my home town that was attacked. The two iconic structures that were destroyed were part of my landscape. I spent numerous visits to "the City" (Manhattan) up on the observation deck. My grandmother, who hated heights but loved being in the building, would sit in the gift shop and sip a cup of coffee. I would lean against the windows and look down the 1,300 feet to a street that looked like a black line. Here is a great shot on Wikipedia that might help those who never got there to understand.

The last time I was at the WTC was in December 1991. Tam and I were living together already. I had planned months before to go up to visit my uncle Owen and recharge my "New York battery." Owen and I did the one thing Grandma never would - go out to the roof. While the observation deck was a great vantage point, the roof was a complete mindblower!

All of that is gone now. 2,900 people are now longer with us. The iconic buildings of my youth are now piles of steel in a New York City dump. Osama Bin Laden still lives in his cave and relishes the fact his minions pulled it off.

I am still heartbroken and angry. I am angry that those silver beacons won't be there when I finally get Andrew to New York. I am angry that we've spent billions of dollars in Iraq while the people who helped do this to us are still alive and free. Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you come from, I am sure I speak for a lot of people when I say - I don't just want justice, I want the people who did this to us to pay and preferably pay while I watch on cable t.v.!

---J, angry native New Yorker