posted on May 12, 2002 05:16:08 PM new
I'm having another one of those moments. One of those moments that keep me pretty much either at my job or in my apartment since 9-11.
It's this kind of stuff that despairs me, should we talk "less tolerance since 9-11."
So we go to the movies, which was a big outing for me anymore, and there are three of us: An elderly woman friend, The Kid and me. Seats were tight but there was a row that had one empty, a group of people, then two empty. The 30 minutes of previews had begun. So I say to the group in the center, "gee, do you think you could move over one seat?" The dead center couple looked at me like I had two heads and looked me square in the eye and said, "No." Shocked (as always by callousness) I said, "I'd do it for you." Deadpan response. Then to shame them I said "I dug bodies on 9-11" while my friend headed one way and The Kid and I another. Of course I doubt they haven't given us a thought since.
And this is why disaster workers kill themselves. I swear it must be. And Vets. Like that.
posted on May 12, 2002 07:29:03 PM new
I'm sorry but these people were rude before 9/11 and if you expected them to have a big change like you did it's not gonna happen. THEY were not digging bodies or bits and pieces and the abstract is probably WAY too big for their little brains.
I know it really changed you but even for many people who lived in the same town if they were not right there watching it happen it is not very real to them. Since TV became so common with instant on the scene news a lot of people have learned to desensitize themselves to what they see and hear or they could not deal with it. They would have pretty much the same reaction you have and they don't want to experience that and have learned a way to stay safely in denial.
If that seems cowardly and in the long run damaging for all of us I can not argue with that. It is. They probably thought yeah sure and discounted what you said as a probable lie. Too uncomfortable to deal with. A lot of us have been told so often how rude New Yorkers are that the behavior fits our stereotype expectation of their behavior. Since you expected better I assume the myth is somewhat false?
posted on May 12, 2002 07:53:38 PM new
You bring up this topic a lot. I can't imagine how it would affect me, but I would strongly advise you to get professional counselling. I believe what you're going through is perfectly understandable, but there may be better ways to deal with it.
posted on May 12, 2002 09:42:35 PM new
I'm just wondering what better ways to deal with this you're talking about twinsoft? I mean, after something so horrific, I would think it talking about it is the ONLY thing she can do right now. (???)
I agree with gravid. Some people are just born rude. Next time, take a potato gun with you.
posted on May 13, 2002 01:28:56 AM newI'm just wondering what better ways to deal with this you're talking about twinsoft?
I don't know how much plainer I can be without resorting to bluntness. Get professional help. If you leave home and go to the movies to get thoughts of 9/11 out of your head, and then tell the first person you see, "Hey, move, because I dug bodies out of the rubble" then maybe it's time to get help. Check into a support group. I didn't say don't talk about it.
posted on May 13, 2002 05:34:31 AM new
>>I'm sorry but these people were rude before 9/11 and if you expected them to have a big change like you did it's not gonna happen. THEY were not digging bodies or bits and pieces and the abstract is probably WAY too big for their little brains.
I know it really changed you but even for many people who lived in the same town if they were not right there watching it happen it is not very real to them.<<
Oh I've changed all right. I can barely stand people anymore. (It's not like I had some kind of conversion experience. ) Really, I'm becoming more and more reclusive &/or introverted--self-protective I guess. And there is no *direct* correllation between this and WTC; I can only make a hypothetical equation. I do not walk around expecting any special favors, etc., or even think about it so much anymore. My 9-11 crack was all I had to hurt back with.
posted on May 14, 2002 08:43:04 PM new
Hey, I know what your saying, but I dont think that the tv de sensatized anyone I think some people are just as holes. I had this copper from Brooklyn call me to try and get a flag while it was going on. I sent him the one he paid for and a dz others with instructions to give one each to someone who deserved it. Now I know for a fact some corp type would say that I did not have the killer instinct, because I could have sold them at ebay which I for one did not do at all. But the corp type might learn That I do have a killer instinct and so do a lot more of us. I sent them out there cause I knew that there were people out there doing their best. and there are tens of thousands of us out here in the cities and countryside who held bake sales, or chipped in or maybe gave blood or had family go away to fight. and I want you to know we did not do it for the president or the congress we did it for you
and those like you, and that is something that the seas takers will never understand.
posted on May 14, 2002 09:16:08 PM new
Good for you, auroranorth for giving away those flags, not for George Bush and our worthless congress but for the good people of this country.
Nycyn is a very courageous mother working and living in the middle of that horrible destruction. Those seat takers in the movie theater should have their ass kicked.
posted on May 14, 2002 11:21:37 PM new
It really pissed my off killing those women and kids on the planes, the stupidity of it if bin laden had come top the American people and said in a series of INfomercials or newspaperads that it was wrong for the israelis to drive tanks over kids or to shoot that little boy huddled against the wall with his unarmed father trying to protect him, some pressure to behave in a more civilized fashion might have been exerted in the right places. The fact is after what he did he has ruined the peace as much as the fat boy sharon has. a good argument could be made by an intelligently run cia to the moslem people that they should kill bin laden for screwing away the oppurtunity he had. Really ticked me off seeing those brave firemen and policemen die like that, I did not see any comparison to oklahoma after oklahoma mc veigh never said things to attack the heart of America but this imbecile living in a friggen cave laying around in filthy rags mouthing off to an impotant president really ticks me a jerk who if he did shave would look like gilligan. i'd like to strangle the son of a #*!@ with my bear hands. I think the Un ought to send in Ugandan and Indian troops to police Israels conduct and to make the needed arrests for war crimes trials they could hold in finland or japan, and rather than screw around with hussein and coalitions I would like to see a devastation on whatever cruds pops up next that would make their heads spin. any how I could'nt give blood cause I had just been under the knife, and I didn't have a lot of moola to work with but I did Have USa flags when others were out and I figured that the the copper would know who to give em too and he did. and I did not ask for him to say where they had come from other than rural wisconsin and people who wanted them to know we cared.
posted on May 15, 2002 05:59:51 PM new
For the record I didn't "dig bodies" on 9-11 but I was down there and plenty busy. Just wanted to hit them with the condensed version of about a month or so.
Helen: In all this destruction? The bizarre thing about this is that if you live, say, 20 blocks away or more, it may as well happened in Lebanon.
Gravid: I think you said something very insightful and important. But being in the middle of it right now I can't quite get it.
The outpouring from people across the country was imcomprehensible (although appreciated) by me. It just was real hard for me to understand the tons of letters from schoolchildren, etc. I guess I don't know how it was received *out there*.
(Incidentally, the American Red Cross took it upon themselves to censor the mail they would let through to rescue workers. They eliminated stuff from kids with references to bodies and dead people and the usual kiddie curiosities, although they eventually got over it.)
On the other hand, my niece, with whom I used to be very close, a nice CHRISTIAN girl with a television in her RSV, wrote me, while we were still sucking in the fumes, to basically guilt trip me about why my son hadn't written her son about a gift he sent. (Markers.) First I wrote that it was high up on our list of things to do next, then, troubled by this, I wrote her again saying that her mail, basically complaining that they hadn't gotten a thank you note while we were up here not sure we'd even be alive next week, didn't sit well with me.
I never heard from her again. But I'm sure they're having bake sales and prayer services for the firemen.
) Really, I'm becoming more and more reclusive &/or introverted--self-protective I guess. And there is no *direct* correllation between this and WTC; I can only make a hypothetical equation. I do not walk around expecting any special favors, etc., or even think about it so much anymore. My 9-11 crack was all I had to hurt back with.