It was like being born again. I for one never let a European attempt to make me feel bad for being part of the greatest country on earth – one thing I used to do subconciously. At the time I worked for a UK firm and I ran into Europeans constantly. Good people, just sitting on the laurels too much. When they asked me in October of 2001 I told them we would be going in to clean up the ME. They had their doubts then – not now.

Thanks for sharing that great story.

I was working for a Wall Street firm at the time. Headed out after the second Tower fell, thinking the whole city was going to collapse, like dominos. Or that more planes were on the way. I walked 10 miles from work that morning, uptown, across the 59th St. Bridge and into Queens with my crying, barefoot girlfriend, watching the fire burn in the distance. We walked up 1st Ave, which had been closed off for ambulances coming from downtown. None came. Once we arrived at my girlfriend’s apartment, we watched CNN all day, thinking 30,000 people must have been killed. Saw Rudy on the news, heading downtown carrying a book of speeches by Churchill from the blitz. Go Rudy! Finally fell asleep around 1am, though I got up at 4 to close all the widows; the wind had changed direction and filled the room with smoke. There was no work for the rest of the week because there was no Wall Street. And finally, when there was work again, no one knew how to get started. It was odd.

I couldn’t get home for a week. Finally able to get back to my neighborhood, I broke down and cried looking at the missing persons flyers taped up all over the place only to look up and see some clown with a camera filming me. I lost colleagues & a good friend.

And so, in return for all that, I’ve given the world IDisagreeWithMaureenDowd.com

This is shameful really. Money should be spent wisely and carefully and in a way that ensures maximum results in safety – not political gain.

Sens. Clinton and Schumer of New York agitate for more Homeland Security funds at every turn. I’m a New York City dweller and lived through 9/11. In fact, I used to able to see the WTC out of my living room window. I would like to feel and be as safe as is possible in the unfriendly world in which we now live.

But it has long been apparent to me that the last thing the Bush administration has wanted to do or will do is dole out a huge amount of money, any of which will be spent as our senators best see fit. The resulting allocation would almost certainly be similar to we now see next door in New Jersey — pork for the friends of the Democratic Party.

Hopefully this story will help other New Yorkers understand why it is that the Fed may at times seem untrusting of those “we” have chosen to represent us in congress.