We turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hitting the second tower. I said to Kem, "This means war." She agreed.
I had promised her not to bring a laptop on our honeymoon, and not to touch the Internet that week. Instead, with her permission, I got on the Net and got involved, writing and posting an article on "The Law of War." It was almost a week before we could get out of Las Vegas and come home. (Suffice to say, I now owe my wife a real honeymoon, a debt I will pay.)
I've read many stories of the reactions of ordinary people to the news by radio of reports from Pearl Harbor on 7 December. This event was very much the same, except it was even more horrible because we could actually see it, in real time. Most Americans had, I think, much the same reaction then as now -- that our nation was now committed to war, with an unknown duration, and unknown time, but a known outcome -- the defeat of our enemies.
Congressman Billybob