Person of The Year 2001: Rudy Giuliani

The reason it is possible not to mourn Sept. 10, to believe that the days ahead may be both more painful and more precious, is that there is evidence we are willing to do the hard work by choice, not just because we have to. And so the year can end, and the fires go out at last at ground zero, and Liberty Island reopens, and soldiers guarding the airport at Kandahar drape mine tape on tumbleweed for a Christmas tree and raise a huge American flag, inscribed with the names of slain men and women. Our job is by no means finished. But Rudy Giuliani's is, not because his term is ending but because maybe we have passed the first test as well.