Five years later we are still asking, "What happened?"

I've been thinking a lot this past week about the events of September 11th, five years ago. Has it really been so long ago? Does it feel long for those who lost a family member or loved one on that day?

I remember waking up to the radio early that horrible morning to hear frantic voices saying over and over, "We've been attacked." I rushed up to the university and sat with dozens of my peers staring with blank disbelieving faces at the televisions in the student union. I cried as we all cried, I feared as we all feared, I was angry as we were all angry.

I battled with the emotions of such an affront and tried to work them out on paper. Here are some of my reflections written in the first few days after in the midst of the confusion:

"I feel the loss of thousands I do not know. I cry with them and share their feelings of loss for something that we share. The desire to be happy, healthy and safe."

"The world has cried for so long and now we join in, creating a tear that engulfs all hurt and sorrow and loss. It is a time for healing. It is a time for understanding."

"Only now that we are able to relate to universal loss , can the world finally begin to understand each other."

"How could we believe we were immune to human suffering when so many times we have been the dispenser of it?"

"Stopping the hatred must begin with every citizen. It must begin with me."

This is a picture of all but 92 of the victims killed in on September 11, 2001. It was used by the government in their prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui.