It seems obligatory to say something about the events of two years ago today; I was on vacation, in North Carolina visiting my parents. I was sitting in the waiting room at a Subaru dealer waiting for my car to be repaired when one of the mechanics (who'd apparently heard it on the radio in the shop) came into the waiting room and turned the TV on just before the second plane hit.

I knew a lot of people who worked for Sun Microsystems on the 25th floor of 2WTC, because I worked for Sun at the time. I live upstate, near Albany, but often traveled to New York to do business with NYC government customers and had spent the previous Tuesday, one week earlier, at the office in 2WTC. My first thought was for the friends I knew in the building, and my second was "there but for the grace of God go I."

Fortunately, no one I knew was hurt or killed in the attack. Many were not so fortunate. I recall paying a visit to the headquarters of the NYFD shortly after the attack. Their headquarters is a relatively new building in downtown Brooklyn, and they had a "Wall of Honor" on the wall in the lobby. It was a huge bronze plaque with the names of every firefighter who had died in the line of duty in the history of the NYFD. After 9/11, they had to take it down because they lost as many firefighters on that day as had died in the existence of the NYFD, and there was nowhere near enough space for the names.

So I'm connected to 9/11, more closely than most, not nearly as closely as some. I count myself fortunate both to have not been there that day and that no one I knew was killed. And now? Well, I'm angry that the event has been used for jingoistic and political purposes, particularly the timing of the Republican convention next year. I'm glad that it's brought out a visible patriotism among Americans, but sad that so much of it is simple-minded. I'm glad that I see more flags these days, but sad that I see so many of them displayed in violation of the Flag Code, and that so many of them are soiled and torn. I'm angry that George Bush used the attack along with a pack of lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, angry about the 300-odd dead American soliders and the 7,000 or so dead Iraqi civilians whose families' sorrow has been added to the sorrow of the 2,800 families affected most by 9/11.

It was a tragedy. And if we give up our freedoms, if we allow our government to play on our emotions and use it to justify whatever they want to do, if we allow more innocents to die, it will continue to be a tragedy. As Ghandi said, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." It's not a way that is always possible for us to follow, but it's not something that will be achieved by killing people.