After the attack on the World Trade Center Towers but before any plans were finalized for dealing with the terrorists, I sat down to breakfast with my father.

I felt lost and frustrated that such a thing could happen in America and nothing was being done to make things right.

“Sometimes I think the only thing that will fix the Middle East,” I said to my Dad, “is to turn the whole region into radioactive glass.”

“Then we wouldn’t be any different from the terrorists,” he said. “Even worse.”

My Dad was a wise man, and history may mark him as prescient. The event brought out both the best and the worst in us. History will sort it out. But, to our small credit, we didn’t turn the Middle East into radioactive glass.