About this time on 9/11/01 two of my colleagues and I had safely walked up the West Side Highway from the WTC. We didn’t leave when the planes hit only when the first Tower went down while we were in the World Financial Center directly across the street. The smoke and debris was difficult to navigate at first but quickly dispersed. As we walked from the site, emergency vehicle after vehicle speed down the highway to the site. When I saw the second building come down, I realized all those men speeding to rescue were now also victims. I knew the world had changed for Americans. They struck on our soil at our symbols to strike at our principles. Yet even today, some are trying to make this a religious war which it is not, and to turn our back on our principles for revenge. I was a lucky survivor. We must honor those that died for these precious principles of freedom, for our constitution and for our values by never abandoning those principles. We must not become the enemy to defeat them. When we fight, as with this enemy we must, at home we remain true to what it means to be an American. We must maintain our integrity with the strength and resolve to overcome adversity through virtue not violence.