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9/11
I know it's kind of a somber topic, but it's appropriate on this grey and rainy day. I just wanted to know, does anyone here have any reflections on September 11th? Like where you were, what you saw, etc?
Comments
Something also related, a friend of mine in my class used to go by the nickname "Ozama" in ICQ and elsewhere before the attacks. He was really just a dumb name and he didn't identify with his Bin Laden's ideology either. Just juvenile punk kid humor. Needless to say he changed it pretty quickly afterwards.
I'll tell you something. Your tragedy is just as unimportant and insignificant as the tragedy of 29,000 children under the age of five (5) dying every day. Instead, you mourn a mere 3000 adults dying, adults who already have fulfilled part of their future, whereas these children haven't even had the chance to think about it. But that is rarely thought about, since hey, those kids didn't die with a bunch of bricks collapsing.
So would you kindly shut the fuck up and let people decide for themselves what they find important? You're not starting a fun discussion, you're not starting an interesting discussion, you're not starting anything that even can be discussed and you're not even informing anyone that today is September the 11th, the day after September 10th and the day before September 12th, big deal, just a day.
If you feel you're not connected enough to the 9/11 deaths to care, then fine; leave the people who do feel that connection be and go start your own discussion about what you feel is important. I'll probably even join you there because I'll probably not hang around here long myself. I personally don't feel much emotional connection to 9/11 either. However, I know that it is very significant in the minds of many people, so I'm not going to go piss all over them by going "This tragedy is worse than yours, so fuck off and stop feeling!" I'm normally pretty supportive of your blunt-but-true assholery, but this time I think you're just plain out of line. Get out, Nine. Just get out.
Eat a dick.
So would you "kindly" practice what you preach and allow me to talk about what I want to talk about on this forum without running the risk of having my character assaulted? Like your little rant up there wasn't at all "personal"?
This day in history was important to me. I was there. I saw it from a window. I saw people jumping to their deaths. I watched the most horrific and traumatizing thing I had personally seen in my entire life that day. THAT is an important topic to ME, and I am allowed to decide that on my own AND share it, just as you are allowed to decide it was insignificant.
While I disagree with the perceived American (or most first world countries) disproportionate view of tragedy, this isn't really the time for discussion of such things. If anyone remembers those fundamentalists who went to campaign at the funerals of gay soldiers, you get the idea.
While this is an emotional subject, would people please try their best to meet differing views with calm and reason. It may serve as good practice.
Coincidentally, today is my parent's anniversary. They are probably going to change it on the sly.
There are also a million bigger problems in the world than terrorism. We should be worrying a lot more about infections in hospitals than we are about terrorists.
While 9/11 was tragic indeed, and all respect should be paid to all those affected by those events, let's be honest with ourselves. The amount of attention paid to 9/11 is only because it was a tragedy affecting large recognizable landmarks. It's also because it was a tragedy involving mostly rich white people in the USA.
The world would be a lot better place if attention were distributed more proportionately. Katrina and the tsunami were a lot worse than 9/11, and they're already being forgotten. Meanwhile 9/11 is going to probably continue to haunt us for decades.
I believe there was a significant residual effect of the event due to a major landmark that can be seen in older movies compared to newer ones and even just the day to day skyline.
Plus of course it's news media driven from the US so it gets mentioned worldwide.
Hell, even when it comes to 9-11 people talk about NYC and not DC or the field in PA. Hype and marketability.
Hmm, where was I? It was my first week of college. I was walking to my fine arts class from 24th street to 23rd street. I usually see the twin towers really well. I wasn't looking for them though. On my walk I over heard people saying things like " I thought this was a no fly zone?" Everyone was talking about the same thing and I thought it was strange so I looked up. I saw one of the twin towers looked like a smoking cigarette. I wanted to think that it was too early for people to be in there, just to give me some peace of mind. I was also a bit late so I just hurried to class. I was worried about what I saw but I figured, it's not that bad and hoped for the best. It's new york, shit happens and I'm used to it. I just didn't know how big the shit was at the time.
So, in my art class we were getting ready to paint some butt naked people but the class wouldn't start. My teacher was just walking in circles telling us to wait. Then some guy walked in the room and said these words exactly "The twin towers are no longer in existence" and that we should go home. Everyone was just quiet. Some people cared some people didn't care but most were silent. Maybe it just didn't settle in yet. Anyway, the plan was to go home. Since there were no trains available anymore I had to join the biggest exodus out of the city I've ever seen. It was a crowd of long faces but I have to admit walking through Manhattan with no cars and people all over the place was an experience. It was scary though. If they had taken down the towers who's to say the bridge I was walking across wouldn't get dropped too. After I crossed the bridge I waited at some gas station to get picked up and driven home.I wasn't in the messy part of town. My friend actually got caught in it and was covered in white dust. He ran through subway tunnels to get away from the walls of debris.
The weeks after that Monday were more depressing then the actual day. I think cartoon network was the only channel that didn't constantly replay videos of people deciding they'd rather Jump off the building then get burned alive. Or people dieing because they got hit by a corpse. Or shoes that were found with feet still in them. Or the family members posting pictures of their loved ones all over the place. The ones that just wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe their loved ones skipped out of work that day and went camping or something. The stories were endless. Every week there was some new horrifying story. The one I kept thinking about was this man who was helping disabled people in wheel chairs down the tower's stairwell. That is until, he realized what he was trying to do was impossible and decided to ditch helpless people to save his own ass. He left them to die. I don't want to be in that situation ever.
Now I have to go visit Cutefeed because remembering all this sucks. It was somewhat refreshing though. I'm glad it's so far in the passed.
I remember the wall at Penn Station, filled with missing posters and photos, and even letters. It was depressing to walk past it so often. I remember one day though, I saw a letter from a class in Japan taped to the wall with a photo and a thousand origami cranes hung beside it, giving us their sympathies and wishing well for our country. I thought that was really sweet.
I wish I thought of making origami cranes. All I did was put a candle out.