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There was still plenty to fear. Stories emerged that seemed to confirm that there were people here who knew this attack was coming ahead of time. Including news of a Brooklyn Afghani 10th grader who, in a heated exchange with his teacher during the 1st week of school, had pointed out the window towards the towers and said "You see those buildings? They won't be here next week". This, combined with the images of those dancing in the Jersey City streets as the towers burned just across the Hudson River, made it obvious that there were snakes in the grass around us. With people who knew about and celebrated the attack in our midst, it wasn't a far stretch to realize there was still a very real & present danger.

We knew just how much the country been caught unaware on the morning of September 11. Common sense said that this was too big an act, too well prepared, not to have a followup waiting in the wings. Those who organized this knew the country would lock down immediately following the attack, and any further plan would have to already be in place. NYC is the symbol of everything they want to destroy. We were certain another equally horrendous attack would shortly follow, and we felt it would happen here.  

This made New York one easily unnerved place in the weeks after the attack. The mere sound of an airliner overhead was enough to make people stop in the street and nervously scan the sky in unison. Papers newly found in Afghan caves showed plots for destroying various NYC landmarks. Anthrax attacks happened here. An airliner mysteriously crashed in the Rockaways. People were caught making surveillance videos of our resevoirs. Every few days the news would carry fresh alerts for shopping malls, or subways, or tunnels.

And all of this happened amid an endless procession of funerals for the victims.