I knew a guy who narrowly escaped getting hit by a falling body. The first e-mail he sent out, two hours later, was, "Hey, how do we get ahold of all the new 212 cell numbers that'll be available?"

As shocked as I was, I felt that this was not my problem as a black person. The people who worked at the World Trade Center were mostly white men, and so they had nothing to do with me as a black woman.

The people on Flight 93 were not goddamn "heroes" or "warriors," they were passengers on the wrong plane. If I have to hear about Todd Beamer and "Let's roll" one more time I am going to puke.