9/11 is a joke... well, not really

Before y'all get upset at me because of the title, that was a play-on-words from Public Emeny's late '80s single.

Back in September 11, 2002, on the one year anniversary of the attacks, I thought every year was gonna be that special day when we drop everything and pray to those who lost their lives in that devastating day. I remember cause on September 11, 2002, I was attending the San Fernando Valley Adventist Academy during my Freshman year in high school. On that day, the school did a special assembly where they paid tribute to the City of New York and the United States on America by singings songs, reciting the Lords Prayer and having Pastors from different churches speaks to us about comparing 9/11/01 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor back on December 7, 1941.

New York is the only place that I can think of that still recognizes and remembers 9/11/01 today for an obvious reason of course. Here in Los Angeles, we kinda did the opposite.

There was a weed convention, a porn convention, a USC home game, a UCLA home game, and some other stuff that happened today. I'm not saying that LA doesn't recognize the attacks, but to me, its unique, and somewhat coincidental, that those local events that I mention were scheduled to be on that day. I remember when I was 13 years old back in September 11, 2001, prior to the attacks, the only things I remember on that date was Jay-Z's The Blueprint album and Fabolous debut album Ghetto Fabolous going to drop in stores on that Tuesday. I say that cause everytime I would watch MTV or BET's Rap City (back when it was good with Big Tigger as one the hosts) and they would always hype those albums saying "IN STORES ON SEPTEMBER 11TH AT YOUR LOCAL TOWER RECORDS OR WHEREHOUSE MUSIC!!!" Those music stores are long gone, as well as the innocent lives of those at the twin towers the Pentagon and the United 93 flight that landed somewhere in Pennsylvania.

By the way, for those wondering what I did and where I was at on 9/11/01? I was on my way to school and I was running really late for Homeroom. Usually, I'd watch music videos on MTV with my siblings or the Channel 5 News while I was eating breakfast and getting ready, but I didn't this time since I was in a serious rush. I rode my bicycle to my middle school and when I got inside the building, I heard my principal speaking on the public address in a way that I never heard him speak in all the days I've been at Frost Middle School prior to that day. He spoke as if some public figure died, and apparently he was right, in a way. Everybody was all shocked and surprised, and through out the rest of the day, we were watching the news coverage in all of my classes, except gym and Algebra cause there was no television set in those classrooms. I don't know how else to describe that moment more, but it did change people's perspective on views forever.