Some bikers, unrelated to my story.

On the morning of September 11th, thirteen years ago, I had an electrical contractor visiting me to estimate some work.  She told me that she was late for our appointment, "You know, because of the bomb in New York."

I didn't say anything, but I was not satisfied with her explanation.  What did a bomb in New York matter to her?  Or to me?

1979:  66 hostages were taken from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran and held for 444 days.

1982:  Thirty hostages were taken by Hezbollah in Lebanon.  Terry Anderson would be held for 2,454 days.

1983:  Islamic Jihad car bomb kills 63 in Lebanon, including 17 Americans.

1983:  Shiite truck bomb at the Beirut Airport kills 241 Marines.

1985:  TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome was hijacked by Hezgollah and Islamic Jihad to Beirut.  U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem was executed and dropped from the plane onto the tarmac.

1985:  The ship Achille Lauro was hijacked by Palestinians.  An American confined to a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer, was executed and thrown overboard.

1986:  TWA Flight 840 en route from Rome to Athens was bombed by Libyans.  117 passengers survived.  Three adult Americans were killed.  An American infant, 9 months old, was also killed.

1988:  Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 259 aboard and 11 on the ground, including 35 Syracuse University students and 143 other Americans.  In August, 2003, Libya formally admitted responsibility.

1993:  A truck bomb in the parking structure of the WTC killed six people but failed to topple the twin towers.  Ten militant Islamists with al Queda links were convicted.

1996:  A truck bomb exploded in front of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia kills 19 Americans.  Five years later, 13 members of Hezbollah were indicted.

1998:  Two U.S. embassies, Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are truck-bombed simultaneously.  Four al Queda operatives were convicted.  18 other al Queda operative were indicted but never apprehended, including Osama bin Laden.

2000:  The USS Cole is attacked in Aden, Yemen.  17 American sailors were killed by al Queda.

But for most Americans, we simply didn't notice that there were organized folks out there trying to kill us...until September 11th.

This would be the second time a bit of the WTC damaged by "that bomb in New York" would pass a few miles from my home on I-294.

see:  http://pgr.pxxq.com/1500.html

At 1:13 in the afternoon on July 17, 2014, a piece of the WTC 91st floor torn loose by "that bomb in New York" 13 years ago passed under the Atkinson Road bridge.

The two bombs in New York, and the one at the Pentagon, and the one over the hills of Pennsylvania changed things.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Let's not repeat it.

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