“
we were so overwhelmed that there was nothing to say. In fact, one of the countless things that got to me that afternoon was the total, eerie silence. None of the usual, mundane traffic noises, none of the usual planes flying overhead from the Newark airport because all air traffic had been halted, just the almost deafening stillness of a country paralyzed in shock from the sudden loss of our innocent, or maybe arrogant, belief that terrorist attacks only happen in faraway places but certainly never on American soil.
”
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