BACK ON THE 11TH of September 2001, Twitter didn't exist when I was sitting at a desk in High Street, Dublin, watching a flow of messages coming as fast then as a shitstorm on Twitter today. I was watching the Open Mailing List in Ireland, a virtual watering hole that threaded commentary elegantly through a time-tested email technology. If I made a screencast of that day on the Open Mailing List, the results would like like a Twitterstream. Within a half hour of the first email string, we knew something other than a light aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. That's because I rang my aunt after I read Doc Searls. My aunt could see the impact site from the 14th floor roof top terrace of her convent. She told me that a local fireman stopped in briefly at a side altar of the church below the convent and that the NYPD was reporting shards of a commercial airliner. As an instructor pilot, I've flown over NYC, down the Hudson at skyscraper height, and around the upraised arm of the Lady in the Harbor. The skyline looks different today. Losing the twin towers in NYC would be like Dublin losing the Spire (at left) or Liberty Hall along the quays. I've returned to NYC several times since that fateful day and the thing that impresses me most is that the city has become friendlier. I've stayed overnight with friendlier staff than I find in Ireland. And I've enjoyed vibrant multiculturalism that I consider to be the best in the world. If I can save the money, I'm returning with my family to New York before Christmas. We don't feel pressed to walk close to the WTC ruins because we enjoy our New York minutes all across Manhattan.Bonus Link: Flickr showing 9/11 and its aftermath.
