*I wrote this two years ago and posted it on one of my old blogs on Yahoo 360, but I felt like it was apropos to repost it today.*

Where were you when it happened. Given the date, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. What types of thoughts went through your mind? Fear? Disbelief? Anger? Happiness? As the day progressed, what types of things did you see happening around you? Just wondering. I can recall alot about the day.

Let’s see. I woke up around 10:00 am or so, I think I turned the television on, but I wasn’t paying it any attention. My pager (yes, pager) had been ringing off the hook with news alerts, but I wasn’t paying attention to those either. I didn’t have class until about 1pm that day so I walked over to the College of Business and Industry at Central State University, just to get online and see if Michael Jordan had made a decision about whether or not to come back to the NBA for a third time. I found the news story I was looking for. The people across from me were talking about something. One girl was saying how she was worried because her husband was working at the Pentagon building and she couldn’t reach him. Someone else walked into the lab and said they couldn’t believe the craziness that was going on, but I was still oblivious.

That was when I looked at CNN, or MSN, or something. For the record, I think it was MSN. They had a picture of people running to escape the debris from the fall of the first tower I believe. I read the story, and I just couldn’t believe it. It didn’t seem real. I printed out the article, if I look good enough I can probably find in in my school folders somewhere. I went back to my room and this time I turned the television and paid attention and saw what was going on, with the video footage and everything else. They kept showing it over and over, slow-motion, zoom ins, and everything.

I went to class after that, but we didn’t do anything related to Quantitative Business Analysis. We basically had a discussion about what was going on and how we felt. The professor was Iranian and he knew that there would be some backlash just based on how he looked. Interesting conversation, lots of valid points brought up. After that my friend, John and I went into town to go to the bank I think. On the way back, we heard a loud noise…when we got back to the campus, people were saying that a jet had blown up at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, that was later debunked by the local news authorities.  Later that day, rumors started circulating that there was a shortage of gasoline and that everyone needed to fill up because there was no telling when there would be anymore. Many folks, including myself, bought into that hyperbole and waited in long lines at gas stations across the “city” of Xenia, Ohio. I also picked up a few items like milk and water as well.

Upon getting back to the campus, I spent the rest of the evening with friends watching the reports, and just talking. It was a very interesting day for the world. I don’t think that anyone was expecting anything like this to ever happen in this country. We’re supposed to be too advanced for that, right? Many folks have their own beliefs and theories as to what happened and they are entitled to that, but at the end of the day…it still happened, and we need to work with that instead of continuing to shuffle blame from here to there.

Many people were lost due to the cowardice acts of September 11, 2001, the powers that be need to work harder to find those responsible and serve justice accordingly. Steps are being taken, but it’s five seven years later…I need to see more. Again, just my opinion and my experience. What about you?

God Bless America, right?