For the 9/11 Families, A Day Without Answers

Burlingame thought Rice performed well. "She explained . . . it was a structural problem that it took September 11 to [shock people to] solve."

She wasn't looking for an apology either: "I felt that Dick Clarke's apology was theatrical and false. Nevertheless, it brought tears to my eyes. The fact that it brought tears to my eyes made me even more contemptuous of him."

Helga Gerhardt and her husband, Hans, journeyed from Toronto to attend the hearing with their son, Stephan, who lives in Arlington. Their other son, Ralph, also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, in Tower 1.

"I had a lot of questions when I came down here," Helga Gerhardt said. "Mr. Ben-Veniste and Mr. Roemer asked all my questions." But Rice "didn't answer all my questions."

Still, listening to Rice "helped, it helped," she said, her eyes still wet.

When Rice approached the family after the hearing, "I just thanked her for coming," said Stephan Gerhardt. "I wish she had come earlier."

"If she had filibustered less, it would have looked better," he added.

But the Gerhardts weren't looking to lay blame: "It's important to me to prevent another attack and make changes to the system to take threats more seriously," said Helga Gerhardt.

It took 90 minutes for the chattering clusters to disperse, the participants carrying with them their certainties, their suspicions, their questions and their grief. The hearing room was left deserted and disordered. The day's newspapers and commission bulletins lay on the floor with discarded coffee cups and water bottles.

At the front was the vacant witness chair, the hot seat, upholstered in shiny black leather. On the witness table was a pitcher of water and a glass that was half full. Or half empty.