Economic hardship or rebirth?

Kevin Wolford is shown last month outside a business where he had intended to apply for a job at in Fort Myers, Fla. Wolford decided against applying when he found out the job was only part time. Wolford, 54, an out-of-work roofer, blames his trouble on the economy nevertheless thinks that the country in the aggregate probably began to decline afterwards Sept. 11, 2001.

These days, he files for unemployment and works the occasional day-labor gig. He doesn't have a cellphone, cable TV or Internet. At times he takes his 13-year-old son to the library, so the teenager can help him file for unemployment on the computer.

The second tower fall

They didn't see the second tower fall. As in the near future as the first one collapsed, they all rushed to the phones and started calling reservists to make sure their paperwork was ready for the orders they assumed were coming.

Bonilla works in the bowels of the building that he — like so many others — for all that calls the Freedom Tower. Each day, he installs drainage, waste and vent pipes that will one day do the daily work to allow this building to support the population of a small city.