PORT ANGELES — A North Olympic Peninsula lawmaker’s visit to the site of the World Trade Center in New York provided an unusual twist to his town hall meeting Wednesday.
Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, is visiting towns in his legislative district to report to constituents — and show slides that he took near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
Buck traveled East to attend the 30th reunion of his graduating class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
He shared his slides of Manhattan and experiences with the nation’s heightened security awareness with a small group of constituents Wednesday afternoon at the Clallam County Courthouse.
His first-person account of his New York visit appeared as a column in Sunday’s Peninsula Daily News.
“It was a pretty different travel arrangement than I’ve ever seen before,” Buck said of his trip back East.
On the flight out to New York, he encountered virtually empty airports and airplanes. People who normally keep to themselves during their travels were actively sizing each other up as a potential threat, he said.
“You could see the look in people’s eyes,” Buck recalled, “‘You wanna try hijacking this plane?”‘
Rep. Buck, R-Joyce, wraps up a weeklong series of town hall meetings in Jefferson County today.
His 90-minute Port Townsend meeting starts at noon in the City Council chambers, 540 Water St.
He heads south to Quilcene for a 90-minute meeting starting at 5 p.m. at the Quilcene Community Center.
Buck held meetings in Port Angeles, Sequim, Clallam Bay, Forks and Ocean Shores earlier this week.
This full report appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.