Like most of us, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when momentous events in my lifetime have occurred. I remember the Kennedy assasinations, Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder, the first moon landing, the Challenger and Columbia disasters and a host more in my 60 years. And I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001.
I was in Houston, attending the late, lamented ISA Expo. I had just come out of the shower when I saw the second plane hit. I thought, "What a great simulation!" and then I realized it was a second plane and the truth came crashing down, just like the towers did a few minutes later.
I also remember where I was the night the President announced that Osama bin Laden was dead, and that a Seal team had done it.
Unlike a lot of people, I have not ever wanted to "black glass" the Middle East or Afghanistan. There are a whole lot of innocent people in the way. Just as there were innocent people in the towers that awful day twelve years ago.
I would like to remember where I was when the mission is really accomplished. When our troops come home, to be replaced by teachers, doctors, nurses and engineers to give people in the Middle East and elsewhere the real tools they need to survive the 21st century. Learning, health, and the infrastructure that makes modern communications and commerce possible. Once, the United States was the savior of Europe. I'd like to remember us as that again, this time for the rest of the world.
So what does all this have to do with process automation you ask, and probably rightly. Process automation will be critical to creating and rebuilding the infrastructure in the developing countries that will make them able to compete on the world's economic stage. We are already seeing this, and we will see more of it in the future.
So, on this day, I remember, and I look forward to never having to remember an event like this again.
