We've met the Trojan Horse.

Note: I wrote this for the White Bear Press on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 You’re diligent about locking your doors, both the car and your house. You wear your seatbelt; eat the recommended servings of food and vegetables and exercise religiously. Why? Because there’s a little voice inside that tells you, “if you do these things, all will be well.” You walk through the security gates at the airport, assured that anyone carrying a weapon will be detected. You sit in your living room, turn on the news and feel some comfort in knowing that the political and religious strife depicted on the screen is happening far removed from your backyard. You feel safe. Then came Tuesday, Sept. 11. As symbols of American might - New York’s World Trade Towers and a wing of the Pentagon go up in smoke, our collective American psyche is forever shaken. How could this happen? We are in America. We are the superpower; we have the might and we are invincible. Didn’t the video-game-like Gulf War some 10 years ago prove that? How our arrogance has made us vulnerable. We are a nation of people who believe in technology. We’ve spent billions on intelligence systems to keep us secure. We have satellites that track movements on the ground from afar. And it all failed. Up until Sept. 11, everything felt so routine, so normal. But on Tuesday morning, another entity entered the scene and now everything is out of whack .... It’s called the world. And this reality is, at times, ugly. It really doesn’t matter who masterminded this catastrophe. Knowing won’t bring back the thousands who have died. Knowing won’t change the world events that will unfold as a result of this attack. Knowing won’t bring back our sense of well-being. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, was the day Americans met the Trojan Horse.