Message from the President

I remember that morning like few others. My train rolled into Union Station in Washington, D.C. a little after 8:30 a.m. Per usual, I grabbed my stuff and started walking over to the Russell Senate Office Building where I planned to meet a friend for coffee in the basement across from the barbershop where I had gotten my haircut for decades. The rest of that morning is history. When I heard that “a plane had flown into the World Trade Center,” I presumed this was a small private plane or some 20-seat commuter prop that somehow lost its way.

I moved to Washington in November of 1982 to work as a staff member on a committee in the United States Senate. Looking back, there was no real Capitol security to speak of and boy were we naïve. On weekends, I would drive my car into the Capitol parking lot from off Constitution Avenue, park, and walk family and friends into the House or Senate chambers and on to the floor. Senator Moynihan sits there, Senator Dole there, Howard Baker over here, Kennedy there, and Thurmond over here. My how things have changed. Tempus Fugit.