What first sparked the idea for ONE SEPTEMBER MORNING?
There was a gut-wrenching moment in my local coffee shop in September, 2004. I had moved from New York City to the Pacific Northwest a few months before that, and I was still feeling tender from the terrorist attacks of 9-11. The conversation moved to recent news events, including the war in Iraq, where the death toll of U.S. soldiers had reached one thousand that week. One thousand . . . A friend of mine shrugged it off. Its not really that high. I was aghast. How could this normally kind person minimize the deaths of others with such ease and alacrity? Whether or not he approved of American involvement in Iraq, did he really think one thousand lives were dispensable? That got me started. Im an advocate of non-violent solutions, but I also have the utmost respect for people who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. I grieved the loss of those soldiers, Americans trying to do the right thing, lives ended prematurely. My heart ached for the families of those one thousand service members as I
