An attack on us all | FinanceAsia

As a Pennsylvanian who has lived and worked in both Washington, DC and Manhattan, the unspeakable acts of terror yesterday have come as a triple whammy. But this act was more than a political statement, more than an assault on a government that we existing in the financial community in Asia can separate from our daily lives. This was an attack on the very ideas that underpin our professions, our ways of life, our philosophy. The modern, progressive and open world that marks liberal, cosmopolitan society has taken a hit.

This tragedy of course is first about the people who have been killed. I cannot wipe the image of an airliner slamming into the Twin Towers from my mind. Any one of us could have been on that plane, or heading to a meeting downtown. My own father walks to work by those buildings, and only by a fluke did he end up elsewhere at the time of the attack. Like all of our readers, I know people who work in the World Trade Center and Arlington, Virginia, and I am still trying to find out if they are alive. My heart and sorrow goes out to the victims, their friends and their family.