Guestblog from Ilana Davita: On Being in the Middle of Times Square with a Malfunctioning Bomb

I was standing in the center of Times Square in New York City on Saturday, and I was overwhelmed by the number of flashing lights and advertisements, when I heard a loud bang, followed by several moments of silence. It was odd to be in such a busy area and then have everything go quiet. I was amazed that nobody really ran away or seemed concerned, but people were more interested in gathering around to see what had made the sound. One of the members of my group asked a policeman what the sound was, and he told us that it was the police deactivating something from the car that was on fire. It did not seem like a big deal, so our group headed over to get ice cream. We were exhausted from getting up at 5:00 that morning and walking around the city for the whole day that we were thinking more about getting to our vans so we could go home and less about the fact that a car was on fire in Times Square. The next morning, when I read the news, I was thoroughly surprised that the noise we heard was a malfunctioning bomb in Times Square and that we were there just shortly after it was discovered.