Guilt. Every year, I get that same feeling.

Guilt that I shouldn't feel, but feel it anyway.

I was way too young to care when it happened. I found out about it much too many years later.

Life began to make sense. The rudeness, the misunderstanding, the plain ignorance I dealt with in others.

It never occurred to me that I shouldn't be blamed. But, nonetheless, they blamed me.

Sooner or later, I began to blame myself.

Childhoods go away quickly. Innocence dies with knowledge. The good memories stay to comfort me, but the bad ones stick like tar.

I can understand what had happened, how it happened, and WHY it happened.

Sadly, "Who" was what stuck in everyone else's minds.

In reality, "Who" is a small group. A small group that does not represent the "Whole". Most of the "Whole" they are a "part" of does not agree with them. However, all it takes is a small "Who" to ruin the image of the "Whole".

The "Who" shocks a nation. The nation fights back. We all know the story.

The nation is filled with many people; Many shocked, Many scared... and Many ignorant.

Ignorance is leads to Misjudgment.

Misjudgment leads to Prejudice

Prejudice leads to Fear.

Fear leads to Hatred.

A vicious chain of thought. A chain of thought that happens far too often in history.

For a shocked, scared, ignorant person, the "Whole" became the "Who".

I was part of that "Whole". That "Whole" was far too different from the nation for most in the nation to understand it. It was easy to see the "Whole" as the one who hurt them.

After all, no one knew better.

So, after all these years, with all the ignorance in people's words, in the air, in people's minds, it makes you, someone who it part of the "Whole", feel responsible. You give in to their Ignorance.

Ignorance is a plague. A plague that is contagious.

So now, I am sad to be part of that "Whole". I may know the truth, that the "Whole" is not that "Who", but what good is the truth when no one wants to change their minds?

You can change laws, but you can't change people. People change themselves.

Until people find out on their own that "Who" was ones who shocked the nation, not the "Whole", we will remain the same, and never learn from our mistakes.

Those who don't learn from History will repeat it.

We gather as a nation on this day, a day that won't be forgotten anytime soon.

We honor the victims, the heroes, and the survivors.

We curse those who caused it.

Just remember "Who" caused it.

Not the "Whole".

Not me.

This is what a Muslim American thinks on 9/11

- Anony