10 Years On

I was in New York City last week for work and happened to be staying in a hotel downtown that overlooked the World Trade Center site.  I have been down to the site maybe seven or eight times since 9/11/2001, but it had been maybe a year or more since the last time.

I walked over to check out the progress on the construction - which is impressive - and chatted with one of the literally hundreds of construction people in the area.  "Even ten years on," I said to him, "looking at this still gives me chills."  It really does.

"A lot of people died in there," he replied after a moment, "but this," he indicated the buildings going up with a wave of his arm, "is a big 'F*$%  You' to them."

I have to say, I am inclined to agree.  To look around the area - the many city blocks of cranes, hard hats, half-built skyscrapers, eight-story-deep holes in the ground, and memorials both formal and informal - is to see one of the key ingredients of what it means to be American. 

We have always been a country of rebirth, of second chances, of mistakes rectified and odds overcome.  There is a fundamental defiance, and pride, and a whole hell of a lot of back-breaking hard work going into the WTC site.  These are some of the metals that went into the initial forging of America, and it was gratifying to see that we can still build our future with these same ingredients.

We may not be perfect - no one is - but I came away from my trip extremely proud of what America can be, and what Americans can do when they put their minds to it.