© CNN

As today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it’s only fitting that I say a few words about these awful events.

However, I will keep them brief and only for the record. I have been making a point of avoiding all coverage of this event: this is not an event to be celebrated in any fashion; it should be for those who lost in these attacks to privately mourn. I didn’t know anyone involved in that Tuesday’s events; I was just a spectator – a distant one at that – to what happened that day.

This blog was operational at that time, but I didn’t get around to posting anything about the day until four days later.

I was at home that day, working on a freelance project. As usual, I got up and – before hitting the shower – checked my email and news/tech sites.

CNN was slow to load, and when it did, it was in crisis mode: Few images, just HTML links of the hot news. The one picture was like the one to the right – a plane-shaped gash in the side of the first tower hit.

I turned on the TV and watched for 15 hours straight. I was watching live coverage when the second plane hit the other Twin Tower, and that’s when you knew we were under attack. One plane could be an accident/the result of a mechanical failure, perhaps the result of a hijacking.

But two planes, coordinated like that. This is deliberate; there may well be more…

I have a handful of take-aways from the days and years following the attacks:

• Then Mayor Rudy Giuliani of NYC did a great job at keeping things in perspective and he helped the city and the country get back to what now passes for normal.
• Both David Letterman and Jon Steward delivered powerful soliloquies when they returned to air a week or two after 9/11. Both were heartfelt, classy responses and, to me, jump-started the healing.
• Our privacy has eroded to an enormous degree as a result of legislation like the Patriot Act (and other similar policies/projects). This is not good; we need to re-examine many of these security measures.
• On a related note, the whole flying process is now seriously messed up (Senator Ted Kennedy found himself on the “Do Not Fly” list and had to run the gauntlet to get on a flight). Noted security expert Bruce Schneier refers to all the security at airports as “security kabuki,” and says the two good pieces of security to come out of 9/11 are the following: Reinforced cockpit doors, and passengers accepting that they might have to fight back (as they famously did on United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania on 9/11). The rest really doesn’t do anything.
• Taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan (with that government’s sanction): Good.
• Taking our eye off the ball in Afghanistan to engage Saddam Hussein in Iraq: Disastrous in just about every way possible. This was reinforced by this year’s Arab Spring, when many countries’ people took to the street to toss out (or try to do so) dictators without any real outside help (Libya is a little more complicated).
• While 9/11 did briefly unite America, it also lead to a completely unacceptable level of hatred and prejudice against Muslims in the US. From claims that Sharia law is creeping into our justice system through the vehement push-back on the so-called Ground Zero Mosque in NYC to the Murfreesboro, TN, mosque lawsuits (and vandalism), these actions are a putrid stain on our democracy, our vaunted melting pot heritage.