On Sept. 11, 2001, media members working in the fourth floor pressroom of the Mississippi Capitol were keeping an eye on a portable television on a filing cabinet. The immediacy of the internet was not then what it is today, so the small box television was the only instant access to the outside world. It was difficult to stop watching the television. A commercial jet had already been seen on national television in real time slamming into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York. People watched as the twin towers tumbled. Would another horrible event unfold on live TV? Reporters covering the Mississippi Capitol did not have much else to do that horrible day. A meeting of the powerful Legislative Budget Committee had been scheduled for that morning but was canceled as the tragedy unfolded in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania. Gathering the obligatory quotes on the unprecedented American tragedy from state politicians was the primary task of members of the Capitol press corps. Democratic former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove speaks during an interview on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 in Jackson. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis “We are deeply saddened and alarmed by these cowardly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,” then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said. “We are monitoring this situation closely and will take all necessary security precautions at the state level. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and injured in these attacks.” In reality, there was much that could be – perhaps needed to be – done on the state level, especially at the Mississippi Capitol. Before that tragic day, people came and went unimpeded into state buildings, including the Capitol. No less than eight entrances into the building were never locked or secured by law enforcement during business hours and sometimes they were still unlocked after business hours. In such a massive building, there was no way to monitor who was coming and going if all the doors were open without security. Then-House Speaker Billy McCoy, a Prentiss County Democrat, said on that day that everything changed. No longer, he predicted, would people be able to move freely into and out of public buildings and public events. McCoy’s prediction quickly came true, and restrictions remain in place 25 years after four commercial aircraft were turned into weapons to kill nearly 3,000 people on American soil. The general public’s entrances to the Mississippi Capitol are limited to two, and they are reinforced by security, metal detectors and scanners. As McCoy predicted, stronger security was in place just a few days after the attacks, on Sept. 20, when Mississippi State hosted South Carolina in the first college football game played after  Sept. 11. A story retelling the historic game, in the State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, described the security put in place, including a no-fly zone over Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville. “The placement of the security, the amount of security was all very important, but we didn’t want it to look like a military presence,” Musgrove said in the article. “We wanted the fans to enjoy the game and we wanted the nation through TV and other means to enjoy the game.” Efforts to maintain balance – between security and convenience – continue today. Late in the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, long lines formed at gas stations as Americans started to panic about whether more attacks were coming. Spikes were reported in the cost of gasoline. Two political rivals, Musgrove and Attorney General Mike Moore, both Democrats, announced a joint news conference just outside of one of those once unguarded doors on the eastern side of the state Capitol. It was a rare site for a press conference, and that just added to the surreal feeling of the day. The rivals announced jointly that Musgrove was declaring a state of emergency to prevent the spike in gas prices after it was reported that the attorney general’s office received more than 2,000 calls about price gouging that day as rumors circulated that the attack would impact the supply of gasoline. Musgrove told Mississippi Today five years ago that his emergency declaration was to highlight that price spiking was illegal. “It seemed like an appropriate thing to do, though I was more focused on security risks related to 9/11.” Musgrove and Moore’s press conference received a brief mention in national news, though in the scope of the day, price gouging in Mississippi or events at a state Capitol far from the attacks on the East Coast seemed like small concerns. ...read more read less