September 13, 2001 -- On Nov. 18, 1997, my family and I stepped off a boat in Luxor, Egypt and attempted to make our way to the magnificent Temple of Hatshepsut. There were no cars, and the streets were deadly quiet.
News - especially news of death and slaughter - doesn't travel as fast in Egypt as it does in the United States.
Instead of a tourist attraction, we walked into the remnants of the most horrific massacre we thought we'd ever see. After all, we are Americans.
Nearly 70 people had been slaughtered by six militant extremists wielding knives and semi-automatic weapons who'd come charging down from the hills with murder in the name of God on their minds.
The temple was bright red with the blood of innocents.
We wept for people we'd never met, who'd been killed by people who believed there could be a God cruel enough to condone this carnage. The whole idea was so foreign to our American minds that it was inconceivable.
In America, somehow, despite our rep, we have managed, despite our differences - and there are hundreds of thousands of differences - to live together in peace.
Hopefully, the unspeakable horror of Tuesday will not change that. We've never changed our ways because we were bullied into doing so.
Despite our rep, you see, we are not, repeat not, a country made up, as extremists seem to believe, of unholy white men gleefully out to nuke the God-fearing.
We are, in fact, a very unique makeup of countless, truly countless, religions, races, colors, and beliefs. And we work. Former Gov. Mario Cuomo said on TV yesterday that there are 184 different ethnicities in New York City alone.
We don't kill you for thinking your God is bigger than my God. We don't even hate you for liking your God better than my God. We are less tolerant over your choice of baseball team than your choice of God.
If there's a belief, have we got a church for you! If there's a culture, have we got a neighborhood for you!
Vegetarian, Rastafarian, Libertarian, Octogenarian, Rotarian, Egalitarian?
We've got a specialist to cure you, a bar to cheer you, a meeting hall to encourage you, even a 12-step program to stop you. Whatever. As long as you're not a Yankee fan in Queens, you can believe whatever the hell you want.
You got a problem with that? Fine. We'll change. That's because we're a self-cleaning democracy. Institutionalized racism is not, contrary to popular belief, our way of life.
Until Tuesday morning this whole mess worked real well. But at 8:45 a.m. our world changed when hate mongers wielding - not nukes - but box cutters changed forever the landscape of this city. And I'm not talking buildings. I'm talking about countless thousands of lives.
When the dead are brought out, the extremists will see whom they're so happy about killing. Doubtless, many of them will be from their own culture, whatever their own culture is.
There also will be countless victims who are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Saudi, Italian, Latvian, Indian, French, Canadian, rich, poor, white guys, black women, brown people, in-between people, fat people, skinny people, tall, short, rich brokers, middle-class moms, and poor delivery guys. You know, typical Americans.
Two of those typical Americans who are working to find missing Americans right now are my cousins.
My cousin John is a cop, and his family hasn't heard from him since he walked into the rubble Tuesday morning, but I swear I saw him on NY 1 Wednesday, covered in dust and grime.
My other cousin, Frank, is a National Guard colonel who was brought in to run some of the cleanup and rescue.
Because I am a typical American, too, and not used to soldiers on our streets, I called him on the cell, and asked him if he wanted to stay with me.
You got room for 300? he asked. He forgave me for my idiocy.
Typical Americans aren't used to soldiers camping on Canal Street. Not that we won't welcome them. You got a problem with that?