Ten Years

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
--Don Henley

Ten years.

I was down in the basement, finishing up my morning workout. Nokia (NOK) had shared some positive pre-market news and futes were up big. I happened to be long calls in various names including NOK, and was thinking that I might ring the register on some trades later that morning.

About 8:45ish the radio station broke in with news that a 'small plane' had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. An eyewitness in a building across from the north tower had not seen the plane hit but was describing the post-crash situation. Smoke, fire, office paper fluttering everywhere. Judging by the wingspan of the gaping hole in the side of the building, he opined, the plane that hit the building was larger than a Cessna.

"Oh my God!" he suddenly screamed. Another plane had hit the WTC complex--this time the south tower.

I remember that eyewitness's account as if it were my own. And as he let out his screams of terror, my world permanently changed.

Prior to that day I lived my life pretty much oblivious to the political arena. Yes, my interest in markets had me learning a bit of geopolitics, and tuning into the coverage of the previous year's election deadlock hinted that I was largely clueless about civics. By and large, however, I was happy to leave political issues to others.

After watching the towers come down while standing in my living room, it began to hit me just how ignorant I was. I had never heard of Osama Bin Laden. But clearly there were those in the world willing to die while killing US citizens. My martial arts training had taught me to detect possible threats. But this type of threat had not been on my radar.

By the afternoon, nationwide air traffic had been shutdown and F-18s were patrolling the cobalt blue skies above our heads. Coping with this kind of threat found government officials acting to suspend various liberties in the name of national security.

My most cogent thought that afternoon was that we as a country would never be as free as we were before 9/11. In order to be safe, we would have to give up some freedom.

But is this a worthy trade? I wondered.

I didn't know much about the Constitution at the time (I had never read it), but it seemed that foregoing liberty, the primary principle upon which the United States was founded, was not something we should consent to lightly. After all, to stop more threats similar to what brought down the Towers would require a police state.

Surely those who founded this country had noodled over what took thousands of deaths in NYC, DC, and the Pennsylvania countryside for me to realize: that there is a fundamental tradeoff between safety and freedom.

What did the founders have to say on the subject? I didn't know but I aimed to find out.

Thus began my self-study of free society that persists to this day. On this 10th anniversary of the Day My World Changed, the best thing I can do to honor those who perished that day is to continue pursuit of the truth wherever it leads.

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