In America on the eve of Sept. 11

ANAHEIM, California – I am in my parents’ home, 10 minutes away from Disneyland. The morning papers are making some people jittery because of reports that terrorists might target another symbol of the American Dream – Disneyland. Topbilled as the happiest place on earth, it is easily a terrorist target.

But to show that America is indeed winning the war against terrorism, life goes on as usual in the continent, not just in Disneyland.

Unlike in the Philippines, you are not subjected to bag searches when you enter malls or department stores in California. To get into Downtown Disney (which, along with California Adventure, is the Disneyland Complex’s newest attraction), the only check you have to go through is a parking booth, where an attendant gives you a card which you surrender on your way out. The queues to the various restaurants and bars in Downtown Disney–an arcade of restaurants and shops just outside Disneyland–are kilometric. Entrance to Downtown Disney is free, but you have to shell out $45 if you proceed to Disneyland or California Adventure.

From where I stood, I saw Americans striking back at the terrorists by moving on and living the good life. From where I stood, thousands of local and foreign tourists walking merrily by, Disneyland still seemed like the happiest place on earth.

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"Make sure you get a pedicure, for it is best to wear open-toed footwear," my sister Mae advised me back in Manila as I packed for my Northwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles.

Like most Filipinos, I’ve heard the Cinderella stories–you know, taking off one’s glass slippers (or Ferragamos) before a host of uniformed Prince Charmings. With an open-toed shoe, at least, the princes of security don’t have much area to cover in search of a ticking bomb.

But used as I was to stringent security checks at the NAIA, I wasn’t traumatized by the checks I had to undergo for this trip, coming as it did a week before 9/11. For one, I wasn’t one of those selected at random at the NAIA for a thorough search–done right in the tube before you enter the plane. When you’re selected for a search, they don’t care whether you’re traveling First Class or Economy or if your luggage is Louis Vuitton or a bayong.

On the plane, the only thing that reminded me that things were not the way they used to be were the plastic knives that came with the silverware, the fine china, and the crisp linen. Otherwise I was on Cloud Nine in Northwest’s Business Class during the smooth, blissfully uneventful flight to LA–a trip I won during a Christmas raffle. Immigration at the Los Angeles International Airport was no problem and Customs did not confiscate the burong pajo I brought in for my mom.

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On the freeway to Anaheim, I noticed a number of cars had tiny American flags flying proudly from their antennas.

In the malls, commemorative books, magazines and T-shirts about 9/11 abound. On television, not an hour passed that you did not see a video of the bombing of the World Trade Center Twin Towers, with that eerily familiar, almost surreal sight of 110 storeys of concrete and steel collapsing into rubble 10 storeys high.

My mom Sonia and I had a kebab dinner at a restaurant called Ali Baba. Owned by Arab-Americans, it escaped the stoning and burning experienced by some Middle Eastern establishments in the US in the aftermath of 9/11. Today, it has a sticker of the American flag posted on its glass doors. The worst is over for those who had suffered discrimination after 9/11 because of their religion and ethnic origins.

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I picked up the book Let’s Roll by Lisa Beamer, wife of 9/11 hero Todd Beamer. I had seen her on Oprah and on Larry King Live. The FBI had records of her husband’s last phone call to the GTE Airfone operator which proved how the passengers of the doomed flight wrested control of the aircraft from the hijackers, preventing it from ploughing into either the White House or the Capitol.

I remember the heartwarming moment when US President George Bush introduced Lisa– who was seated in the gallery– when he addressed a joint session of the US Congress after 9/11.

Let’s Roll–whose hard cover edition sells for $24.99 at Borders and only $13 at Cosco–is a must-read for those who do not understand why "bad" things happen to good people. Because Todd–one of the three most admired individuals in America today, according to the Dallas Morning News–was a devout Christian, his wife Lisa, a woman of faith herself–strove to rise above her grief. Lisa, however, does not claim that faith takes away all grief and doubts and the "Why me’s?" of a broken heart.

When Lisa, then five months pregnant, heard that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was en route to San Francisco and it had originated from Newark Airport, she knew in her heart that Todd had gone down with the plane.

According to Lisa Jefferson, the GTE supervisor who took Todd’s call from the aircraft, Todd’s last words were addressed to his fellow passengers: "He said ‘Are you ready? Okay let’s roll!’ "

According to Lisa, "Let’s roll" was Todd’s "phrase." "We use that phrase all the time with our boys. When they hear ‘Let’s roll,’ they head for the door. They know that it means a sort of ‘Let’s get ready for the next thing we’re going to do’," Lisa Beamer told Lisa Jefferson.

Several of Flight 93’s passengers were able to make calls, and for one reason or the other, the hijackers let them.

"The calls describing what happened aboard Flight 93 mean so much to me and to millions of Americans. The courageous actions of the passengers and crew reminded me that on a day when people around the world felt violated, helpless, alone and afraid, there were still people of character, people who in the midst of crisis dared to live to the last second with hope. Truly the valiant heroes aboard Flight 93 fought the first battle in what President Bush declared as a war against terrorism … and won."

The book, as its subtitle says, is about "Ordinary people, extraordinary courage."

Lisa recreates in the book, as faithfully as phone records show, what transpired in the last few minutes of the flight. This will leave you with goose bumps.

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I had planned this trip so that I would be in America on the eve of 9/11. I found security at LAX tighter compared to before 9/11. But I am luckier than Senate President Franklin Drilon. Nobody asked me to take off my shoes.

I had conquered my fear of flying on an American carrier to an American city. And boy, did I enjoy Downtown Disney.