RENO, Nev. - My sign of things to come was stacked prominently last week in the bookstore at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand. There, among the Grishams and Jackie Collinses, was an earnest paperback encased in red, white and blue, called Because We Are Americans.
I cringed, but had to look. I was about to fly home to the United States for the first time after 14 months in Asia, and before my return I wanted a glimpse of what Sept. 11 has done to my country.
So I took in the nauseating blurb on the back cover that claimed, among other absurdities, that Because We Are Americans we selflessly ran into the tumbling inferno of the World Trade Center to save lives. Not because "we" were trained rescue workers who sensed a need and not because humans are sometimes reckless creatures, but because "we Americans" are more brave, more willing to help, more and better and greater than anybody else.
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