![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Horrible Tragedy
Sep. 15th, 2001 12:31 amIt's been very hard for me to write about this. This whole thing hit me really hard. I lived in NY most of my life and moved out here to California about 2 years ago. As long as I can remember the WTC has been there, a permanent fixture on the horizon (or so I thought). I always loved the NYC skyline at night. Before I left NY I worked a couple of blocks from the WTC for over a year. My father worked even closer, but he retired around the time I left for CA. I found out tuesday afternoon that my brother was working in Building 7. Thank God he got out O.K. and is home. But he's still trying to figure out where he's working (fortunately it's a big company with other offices), but worse than anything he was THERE. He got out 12-15 minutes before the towers collapsed. And he later had to watch the building he worked in collapse. That's not something anyone is ever likely to forget:(.
It's been hard enough just watching it over and over again on CNN, which I've had on a lot this week. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to actually be there and experience this in person. To see all this and know this was caused by fanatics, people so evil and totally lacking in any moral values that they could kill thousands of innocent people
And for what? Apparently they totally underestimated us. They wants to hurt us, scare us, destroy our weakened economy. But if they thought this would help their cause they were dead wrong. They're lost any sympathy people might have had for them, and Arabs are starting to get an idea of the persecution the Jews have been put through throughout history. And they've REALLY pissed us off. I think a lot of people didn't expect it, but we WILL hunt these people down and we will get revenge. How remains to be seen but they've done the unforgivable and cannot be allowed to get away with it. And we can't wait around for this one. Americans don't have the patience as someone on CNN said, and if Bush DOESN'T do anything he won't be able to get elected to Dog Catcher at the end of his term. This needs to be stopped so it never happens again. If we don't do anything the terrorists will think we're weak and they can do whatever they want without fear of repercussions.
People seemed to think we'd have to wait months to know for certain who did it. But when you throw nearly unlimited resources at a problem it can be solved a lot faster, and I think we've seen that. Does anyone really think there's a single person in the FBI who's NOT working on this? Everything else takes second place to this horrible crime. And I saw something today that the FBI got something like 36,000 tips. After something this horrifying happened anyone who knows anything and has a conscience is trying to help.
One reason I took so long to post, and the reason I'm turning off comments for this post, despite the fact that I don't expect people to read it anyway, is I've seen way too many people with opinions who're trying to shove those opinions down everyone else's throats. This is the last thing I or anyone else who is upset with this wants to deal with right now. And some of those opinions have really gotten to me. People have the right to their own opinion but no one else seems to think anyone else's opinion is valid. I can't believe people could be so horrible to think that we asked for it, and the people celebrating this in the middle east have guaranteed that there will be a lot of anti-Arab sentiment for some time to come. Do they think this will make us stop supporting Israel? More like the opposite! And if we asked for it maybe they should read the post floating around the internet that a Canadian wrote in 1973. And some people say we shouldn't attack them and shouldn't hurt civilians, not that they cared about that. These people use civilians as shields. They hide behind them. We cannot take the high moral ground if it means they can continue to take the low ground and kill thousands of more innocent civilians! And if we don't get them, and show them they can't get away with that, they will.
Yeah, there's no guarantees. That area seems to breed religious fanatics. The one thing I'm hoping comes out of this is that somehow, someway, this manages to fix the downward spiral the Middle East seems to be caught in. It would take something major to make a real, major difference there, and maybe something will come out of this to do it.
And another thing. A few people seem to be worried about WWIII happening. The very idea is laughable! The world supports us! Nato has said an attack on one is an attack on all. We've had expressions of sympathy worldwide. A war here will at most be a couple of small middle eastern countries versus the rest of the world. Does that really sound like a World War to you?
*sigh* Well, I'm going to end this now. And turn off comments. This is my opinion. I know a few people don't agree and are willing to argue at length about it. But if you don't like my opinion, go away and don't read it. I'm not posting because I want your opinion shoved down my throat. Nothing you say is going to change my mind anyway. And I'm not the one who makes the decisions. Go annoy Bush if you want to. But a lot more Americans feel like I do. I'm writing this because a really devastating thing just happened, and I wanted to write about it. This is a difficult time for me and for a lot of other people, and people need to have respect for that. I know for people who weren't there or haven't been to NY it seems more distant and not as real to them, but for others of us this is devastating.
One last thing, I think this has shown me how much people generalize and underestimate people who are different from them. The U.S. has been underestimated, and so have NYers. They may have a reputation for being obnoxious and rude, but when I heard about how many NYers were trying to help as someone who grew up there and lived there nearly 30 years I was not surprised. I think a lot of people were. I think more people should keep in mind that stereotypes aren't always at all accurate (I mean NYers always being in a hurry? Heh. I've had to pass slowpokes countless times in Manhattan). People have preconceived ideas about other people, but it's important to keep an open mind and realize that not all of those ideas are right. I'm sure there are countless Arabs who are totally innocent and would never dream of pulling something like that. Maybe part of the problem is they don't realize there are countless Americans and even Israelis who wouldn't hurt them either. It all comes down to generalization. Maybe we all need to judge people on an individual basis, no matter how difficult that is. But I guess it's tough to change human nature. I don't expect to see that happen anytime soon, but it would be a nice surprise if it did.
It's been hard enough just watching it over and over again on CNN, which I've had on a lot this week. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like to actually be there and experience this in person. To see all this and know this was caused by fanatics, people so evil and totally lacking in any moral values that they could kill thousands of innocent people
And for what? Apparently they totally underestimated us. They wants to hurt us, scare us, destroy our weakened economy. But if they thought this would help their cause they were dead wrong. They're lost any sympathy people might have had for them, and Arabs are starting to get an idea of the persecution the Jews have been put through throughout history. And they've REALLY pissed us off. I think a lot of people didn't expect it, but we WILL hunt these people down and we will get revenge. How remains to be seen but they've done the unforgivable and cannot be allowed to get away with it. And we can't wait around for this one. Americans don't have the patience as someone on CNN said, and if Bush DOESN'T do anything he won't be able to get elected to Dog Catcher at the end of his term. This needs to be stopped so it never happens again. If we don't do anything the terrorists will think we're weak and they can do whatever they want without fear of repercussions.
People seemed to think we'd have to wait months to know for certain who did it. But when you throw nearly unlimited resources at a problem it can be solved a lot faster, and I think we've seen that. Does anyone really think there's a single person in the FBI who's NOT working on this? Everything else takes second place to this horrible crime. And I saw something today that the FBI got something like 36,000 tips. After something this horrifying happened anyone who knows anything and has a conscience is trying to help.
One reason I took so long to post, and the reason I'm turning off comments for this post, despite the fact that I don't expect people to read it anyway, is I've seen way too many people with opinions who're trying to shove those opinions down everyone else's throats. This is the last thing I or anyone else who is upset with this wants to deal with right now. And some of those opinions have really gotten to me. People have the right to their own opinion but no one else seems to think anyone else's opinion is valid. I can't believe people could be so horrible to think that we asked for it, and the people celebrating this in the middle east have guaranteed that there will be a lot of anti-Arab sentiment for some time to come. Do they think this will make us stop supporting Israel? More like the opposite! And if we asked for it maybe they should read the post floating around the internet that a Canadian wrote in 1973. And some people say we shouldn't attack them and shouldn't hurt civilians, not that they cared about that. These people use civilians as shields. They hide behind them. We cannot take the high moral ground if it means they can continue to take the low ground and kill thousands of more innocent civilians! And if we don't get them, and show them they can't get away with that, they will.
Yeah, there's no guarantees. That area seems to breed religious fanatics. The one thing I'm hoping comes out of this is that somehow, someway, this manages to fix the downward spiral the Middle East seems to be caught in. It would take something major to make a real, major difference there, and maybe something will come out of this to do it.
And another thing. A few people seem to be worried about WWIII happening. The very idea is laughable! The world supports us! Nato has said an attack on one is an attack on all. We've had expressions of sympathy worldwide. A war here will at most be a couple of small middle eastern countries versus the rest of the world. Does that really sound like a World War to you?
*sigh* Well, I'm going to end this now. And turn off comments. This is my opinion. I know a few people don't agree and are willing to argue at length about it. But if you don't like my opinion, go away and don't read it. I'm not posting because I want your opinion shoved down my throat. Nothing you say is going to change my mind anyway. And I'm not the one who makes the decisions. Go annoy Bush if you want to. But a lot more Americans feel like I do. I'm writing this because a really devastating thing just happened, and I wanted to write about it. This is a difficult time for me and for a lot of other people, and people need to have respect for that. I know for people who weren't there or haven't been to NY it seems more distant and not as real to them, but for others of us this is devastating.
One last thing, I think this has shown me how much people generalize and underestimate people who are different from them. The U.S. has been underestimated, and so have NYers. They may have a reputation for being obnoxious and rude, but when I heard about how many NYers were trying to help as someone who grew up there and lived there nearly 30 years I was not surprised. I think a lot of people were. I think more people should keep in mind that stereotypes aren't always at all accurate (I mean NYers always being in a hurry? Heh. I've had to pass slowpokes countless times in Manhattan). People have preconceived ideas about other people, but it's important to keep an open mind and realize that not all of those ideas are right. I'm sure there are countless Arabs who are totally innocent and would never dream of pulling something like that. Maybe part of the problem is they don't realize there are countless Americans and even Israelis who wouldn't hurt them either. It all comes down to generalization. Maybe we all need to judge people on an individual basis, no matter how difficult that is. But I guess it's tough to change human nature. I don't expect to see that happen anytime soon, but it would be a nice surprise if it did.
