4 ms·

I was 9 and angry that they interupted my tv show to show news (adult stuff) from the other side of the world. 20 years later and I have a better understanding

by Tenoke 5y ago

I was 9 and angry that they interupted my tv show to show news (adult stuff) from the other side of the world. 20 years later and I have a better understanding of the situation but in a lot of ways I think everyone reacted and keeps reacting just how the terrorists wanted. It's tragic but if this wasn't in America I likely wouldnt have even heard about the event nor would it be influencing my life this much later due to the ways others have reacted to it. I hope this doesn't read as disrespectful.

asib 5y ago
> It's tragic but if this wasn't in America I likely wouldnt have even heard about the event nor would it be influencing my life this much later due to the ways others have reacted to it. I hope this doesn't read as disrespectful. I definitely agree to an extent with the sentiment of this - there are numerous attacks in recent times across the world that have killed hundreds of people each and they generally receive very little coverage. However, I also think it perhaps downplays the significance of the WTC attack. 9/11 is still the deadliest terrorist attack in history by quite a significant margin according to [0]. I'd be surprised if a similar event in another country was not covered by world news outlets. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_and_other_violent_events_by_death_toll#Non-state_terrorist_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_and_other_viol...
- Tenoke 5y ago
  >I'd be surprised if a similar event in another country was not covered by world news outlets. Well, I haven't really heard of the 2nd and 3rd one (though hard to compare) on the list and I doubt they've gotten even 1% of the coverage.
  - Sebb767 5y ago
    Especially considering that the 3rd one happened in November 2020. It's not like this was years ago and might be forgotten; we all were around then.
benatkin 5y ago
This is not unlike comparisons of 9/11 to the pandemic. The buildings (and NYC skyline) aren't as important as the lives that were lost, but it causes a different and more prolonged response. And it isn't just "look what those terrorists did", it's "I can't believe those buildings are gone". Saying they're gone reminds me of Mark Pilgrim's 410 Gone incident. It's analogous to me.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
cududa 5y ago
I was 10. My classroom “job” was to take the attendance to the office. No one was in the main office, I could hear them in the back room so I wandered back. I got there right as the first tower came down. The way all the adults were screaming, was clear it wasn’t a movie. I stayed for a few minutes listening to the news anchor going over the events of the day before being sent back to class and told not to tell anyone. My fifth grade teacher, who I’m still friends with today, said she’d never seen a kid with that look. She eventually got me to tell her what happened. I guess I said something like “Americas being bombed. The big building in New York is on fire and the other one fell over and the pentagon blew up.” I don’t remember saying that, but I do remember how furious she was at me saying that was a horrible story to make up. We had TV’s in each class, she was going to turn on the news to show me it wasn’t true, begged her not to. She called the front office, couldn’t get through (assuming they were still watching TV). She went on her computer, started crying. Composed herself, dropped whatever we were learning that day and she put on The Princess Bride - still can’t enjoy that movie. She let me sit behind her desk and we’d attempt to refresh websites to get updates on what was happening, both of us occasionally crying. They didn’t send us home for a few hours, but it’s always been a weird feeling knowing that of all the 600+ kids in that school, I was the only one that knew what was happening, and only a handful of adults did, the rest going about their day without just sitting there knowing what was happening. Her and I are still friends to this day, that experience really bonded us. She’d suspected I was on the autism spectrum, my parents wouldn’t get me evaluated, and school was pretty rough for me. I’d have been held back in multiple grades, possibly not even graduate if she hadn’t gone to bat for me with every “problem” teacher I had at various schools in my district year after year, getting me put in “good” teachers for various subjects, getting me into advance classes even though my grades hadn’t previously warranted it, etc. No idea where I’d be in life had I not wandered into the back office, and her and I had that experience.
doctor_eval 5y ago
I don’t think it’s disrespectful to say that, but the reason America is important is because the US, uniquely, has the ability to unilaterally retaliate, and drive the world into 20 years of continuous war. Which is what happened. The many people killed in the WTC was surely a tragedy, but the number of people subsequently killed as a consequence of this day was far higher, and this is no less a tragedy. I think this is why it made headlines around the world. The bear had been kicked and we were all afraid of what it might do.

by Tenoke 5y ago

asib 5y ago

> It's tragic but if this wasn't in America I likely wouldnt have even heard about the event nor would it be influencing my life this much later due to the ways others have reacted to it. I hope this doesn't read as disrespectful. I definitely agree to an extent with the sentiment of this - there are numerous attacks in recent times across the world that have killed hundreds of people each and they generally receive very little coverage. However, I also think it perhaps downplays the significance of the WTC attack. 9/11 is still the deadliest terrorist attack in history by quite a significant margin according to [0]. I'd be surprised if a similar event in another country was not covered by world news outlets. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_and_other_violent_events_by_death_toll#Non-state_terrorist_attacks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_and_other_viol...

Tenoke 5y ago
>I'd be surprised if a similar event in another country was not covered by world news outlets. Well, I haven't really heard of the 2nd and 3rd one (though hard to compare) on the list and I doubt they've gotten even 1% of the coverage.
- Sebb767 5y ago
  Especially considering that the 3rd one happened in November 2020. It's not like this was years ago and might be forgotten; we all were around then.

benatkin 5y ago

This is not unlike comparisons of 9/11 to the pandemic. The buildings (and NYC skyline) aren't as important as the lives that were lost, but it causes a different and more prolonged response. And it isn't just "look what those terrorists did", it's "I can't believe those buildings are gone". Saying they're gone reminds me of Mark Pilgrim's 410 Gone incident. It's analogous to me.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

cududa 5y ago

I was 10. My classroom “job” was to take the attendance to the office. No one was in the main office, I could hear them in the back room so I wandered back. I got there right as the first tower came down. The way all the adults were screaming, was clear it wasn’t a movie. I stayed for a few minutes listening to the news anchor going over the events of the day before being sent back to class and told not to tell anyone. My fifth grade teacher, who I’m still friends with today, said she’d never seen a kid with that look. She eventually got me to tell her what happened. I guess I said something like “Americas being bombed. The big building in New York is on fire and the other one fell over and the pentagon blew up.” I don’t remember saying that, but I do remember how furious she was at me saying that was a horrible story to make up. We had TV’s in each class, she was going to turn on the news to show me it wasn’t true, begged her not to. She called the front office, couldn’t get through (assuming they were still watching TV). She went on her computer, started crying. Composed herself, dropped whatever we were learning that day and she put on The Princess Bride - still can’t enjoy that movie. She let me sit behind her desk and we’d attempt to refresh websites to get updates on what was happening, both of us occasionally crying. They didn’t send us home for a few hours, but it’s always been a weird feeling knowing that of all the 600+ kids in that school, I was the only one that knew what was happening, and only a handful of adults did, the rest going about their day without just sitting there knowing what was happening. Her and I are still friends to this day, that experience really bonded us. She’d suspected I was on the autism spectrum, my parents wouldn’t get me evaluated, and school was pretty rough for me. I’d have been held back in multiple grades, possibly not even graduate if she hadn’t gone to bat for me with every “problem” teacher I had at various schools in my district year after year, getting me put in “good” teachers for various subjects, getting me into advance classes even though my grades hadn’t previously warranted it, etc. No idea where I’d be in life had I not wandered into the back office, and her and I had that experience.

doctor_eval 5y ago

I don’t think it’s disrespectful to say that, but the reason America is important is because the US, uniquely, has the ability to unilaterally retaliate, and drive the world into 20 years of continuous war. Which is what happened. The many people killed in the WTC was surely a tragedy, but the number of people subsequently killed as a consequence of this day was far higher, and this is no less a tragedy. I think this is why it made headlines around the world. The bear had been kicked and we were all afraid of what it might do.