[...]... this I d never seen anything like this before I didn’t want to touch it—that person I just knelt there next to the firefighter and quietly watched him as he gently slid his hands under the remains and lifted them into his arms Then he placed them into the body bag I was holding open I zipped it up and handed it to the next guy in the line I watched the bag as it was handed down the line until it disappeared... was the skeletal remains of his other hand I heard a voice say, “It’s his ribs.” The firefighter I was working with startled me I hadn’t realized he was watching Torn muscles, tendons, and flesh still clung to the jutting bones I returned my gaze to the bones I held in my hand and nodded quietly in recognition I placed the last remaining pieces I could find into the half-empty bag and slowly zipped it... Ground Zero I saw him working small miracles in the villages of Afghanistan and Iraq War and violence can shake our belief in God But it can also assure us that only a loving God would create men and women who would risk their own lives in service to others Yes, I still believe in God And, yes, I believe more than ever in the moral goodness of the United States and its people I d like to think we all do,... one I eventually found it in an old suitcase I d buried in the back of a closet I tried it on Size 48L, the same size I wore when I was a linebacker in the NFL in the early 1990s Only it looked ridiculous on me now I weighed twenty pounds less than I did when I was playing with the Chiefs, Steelers, and Patriots, so I looked like a little kid trying on something he’d found in his dad’s closet I had... were unaware that Osama bin Laden had been indicted in Manhattan for ordering terrorist attacks on American targets in the 1990s Not surprisingly, the indictment that was handed down on November 5, 1998, alleged bin Laden and Al-Qaeda had engaged in a long-term conspiracy to attack 10 ★ A L L A M E R I CA N U.S facilities overseas and to kill American citizens In indicting bin Laden, the grand jurors... lay where the crumbling twin towers had deposited him when men who claimed to be serving their god flew an airplane into his building I went to pick him up gently, and as I did, his liver and intestines spilled out onto my right forearm Horrified, I immediately pulled my arm away The fi refighter with me asked, “Hey, can you handle this?” I looked at him, took a deep breath to gather myself, and nodded... be in charge, fi nally finding a fire-department battalion chief I asked him, “What can I do?” He just looked at me and pointed over to the pile, where hundreds of people were lined up, passing buckets of debris from hand to hand It was that primitive the site was too dangerous for heavy construction equipment Instead, people were digging through the remains of two of the world’s tallest buildings with... across the street going to collapse on top of me? Then I heard a voice coming from down in the pit It was a firm voice, but a calm voice The voice belonged to a fi reman He was a thin, distinguished-looking man in his late forties maybe early fifties He had salt -and- pepper hair and his navy-blue pants and light blue shirt were still amazingly clean and pressed He was trying to calm one of the younger firefighters... up and down “Yeah,” I said I picked up the torso and remaining shoulder and placed them 12 ★ A L L A M E R I CA N in the body bag that had been lowered down I then picked up his hand After that I placed a foot that was lying nearby in the bag I looked around to see if I was missing anything else before I left Something caught my eye It looked like bones attached at a main joint At first I thought it... stairs to the sunshine But with each step, I saw more and more people gathered around the subway entrance As I emerged I saw hundreds of people standing in the street I could see their faces, filled with fear and bewilderment Their heads were tilted up, their eyes staring at some object in the sky behind me Some of them had tears in their eyes I turned around There was a horrible, sickly gash in the . Brendan, Erin, Colin, Grifn, T.J., and Timmy. Finally, I must thank the most incredible woman in the world. She came into my life when I thought I would. and assistance from the very beginning, I could not have maintained the stamina and discipline necessary to complete this book. Like so many of the great