9-11
I was in NYC this weekend and although I had lived there for 7 years including a year after the attacks, I could never muster the courage to go to Ground zero. I honnestly don't like the term "Ground Zero". There is something sensationalistic about it that just seems disrescpectful to me.
I was very tempted to go there this year because I took the Path train to the WTC station to meet a friend for lunch but I still didn't. Maybe someday...
For some reason, the last four 9-11's did not bring me a lot of sadness. I was busy moving my life around. The day went by and I wasn't overwhelmed with the sense of grief of that first year and then there was this year...For some reason, I spent way too much time thinking about it, reflecting about the people who died and the buildings and the apprehension of it happening again somewhere, sometime. I cried which I rarely do and I m still upset.
I was puzzled by why this year was different and then it dawned upon me that the NYC TV stations (I spent a lot of time in a hotel room between meetings watching TV) had shown not only the same footage of the planes crashing into the buildings which people have seen hundreds of times but for some reason, perhaps because of the passage time, they had become less concerned about shocking sensibilities and ventured into showing footage of people jumping out of burning buildings...One station even showed the remains of a crushed body after the fact and to me that was too much...
God knows I ve witnessed blood and gore in my life but I NEVER want to see that footage again. Almost three days later, I am still thinking about it. I still see images of people jumping, some all tangled up, some trying to adjust their bodies in mid-air as if to cheat the inevitable....
We all know what happened that day. It's not like the murderers who did this will feel guilty if they see the pictures. I do not want to see this ever again...I think the media should understand this and never subject the public and the victims loved ones to this kind of footage again.
I also would like to see a memorial there. It's been five years and greed has kept it one big gaping hole. The victims deserve better than that.
I was very tempted to go there this year because I took the Path train to the WTC station to meet a friend for lunch but I still didn't. Maybe someday...
For some reason, the last four 9-11's did not bring me a lot of sadness. I was busy moving my life around. The day went by and I wasn't overwhelmed with the sense of grief of that first year and then there was this year...For some reason, I spent way too much time thinking about it, reflecting about the people who died and the buildings and the apprehension of it happening again somewhere, sometime. I cried which I rarely do and I m still upset.
I was puzzled by why this year was different and then it dawned upon me that the NYC TV stations (I spent a lot of time in a hotel room between meetings watching TV) had shown not only the same footage of the planes crashing into the buildings which people have seen hundreds of times but for some reason, perhaps because of the passage time, they had become less concerned about shocking sensibilities and ventured into showing footage of people jumping out of burning buildings...One station even showed the remains of a crushed body after the fact and to me that was too much...
God knows I ve witnessed blood and gore in my life but I NEVER want to see that footage again. Almost three days later, I am still thinking about it. I still see images of people jumping, some all tangled up, some trying to adjust their bodies in mid-air as if to cheat the inevitable....
We all know what happened that day. It's not like the murderers who did this will feel guilty if they see the pictures. I do not want to see this ever again...I think the media should understand this and never subject the public and the victims loved ones to this kind of footage again.
I also would like to see a memorial there. It's been five years and greed has kept it one big gaping hole. The victims deserve better than that.