Cell Phones and Automatic Rifles

I lived and worked near the US Capitol on September 11 and walked to work on a beautiful clear day. After the planes crashed into the towers and some chatter about an attack in DC, my office recommended employees evacuate our office building next to the FBI. I walked home to Capitol Hill watching many people with their cell phones to their ears, trying unsuccessfully to make a call. I did not have a cell phone then but immediately vowed to get one. On the walk home before the crash at the Pentagon, I neared Union Station and tried to take in the scenes around me.

I remember feeling like I was part of a disaster movie with confused people trying to figure out how to get home. After 9/11 the sight of armed police and guards with automatic rifles in DC disturbed me greatly but now it’s so common…a war zone that isn’t going away.