My Sister, My Grief

[cali]

<snip>

On Sept. 11, 2001, my sister Karen died while working at the World Trade Center.

In the weeks that followed, my family and I held a memorial service for her, and emptied and sold her apartment. Then, my body gave out. For weeks, I couldn’t get out of bed. I lost all interest in watching TV, listening to music or reading.

<snip>


My family has struggled to adapt and move forward, and so, too, has everyone else. In the past decade, the world has, of course, drastically changed. As a result of the deaths of my sister and the thousands of others at the trade center and Pentagon, George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan, and then under false pretenses invaded Iraq. Thousands of American and foreign soldiers and untold thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded. Politicians have exploited the deaths on 9/11 for their own ends.

When the members of Al Qaeda attacked on 9/11, Americans wondered, “Why do they hate us so much?” Many here believe they dislike us for our “freedom,” but I think otherwise.

There are lessons we have not yet learned. I feel Karen would share my concerns that underlying forces of greed and hate persevere. American imperialism, corporate avarice, abuses of our power abroad and our historical support of corrupt dictators like Hosni Mubarak have created an abhorrence of us that, unfortunately, persists. We need to recognize how the rest of the world sees us, and figure out how to change that. Until we do that, more Osama bin Ladens will arise, and more innocent people like my sister will die.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/opinion/04klitzman.html?ref=opinion

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Kicked and highly recommended

[uppityperson]

2. "Bin Laden’s death was cathartic-his terrorist attacks traumatized all of us-but in large pait isrt

"Bin Laden’s death was cathartic — his terrorist attacks traumatized all of us — but in large part it is only a symbolic victory."

This is how I feel also. k&r

[hfojvt]

3. I don't think that attack traumatized all of us

especially not as more time passed. The media tried to hype it, or perhaps some people did have a sincere fear, that a 9/11 would start happening every two weeks or once a month, or that something even bigger could be in the works, but the more time that passed the less that looked like a serious threat. It had a huge impact on the friends and family of those lost, but that was a relativelty small group. Smaller than the number of people who lost friends and family in the Iraq war and much smaller than the number killed in homicides or car accidents in an average year.

[uppityperson]

5. I have images of that day seared into my brain. It doesn't mean I'm fearful of another attack like

that, but yes, I was traumatized by what I saw.

Emotionally, feeling traumatized is not dependent upon the number of people who die in an act. One person dying in your arms can traumatize you. My friend whose son has been in Iraq at least 3 times and now is in Afghanistan has been traumatized by the potential loss of him. Feeling traumatized is not dependent upon how many people are involved.

[hfojvt]

7. for me it was too far away to seem real

To give one example. One evening I turned on a game of Monday Night Football. The Giants were playing the Redskins. First, I noticed that the Redskins had a different quarterback than their usual starter, Joe Theisman. Then I heard that Theisman had been hurt and was curious to see how. Then they showed Lawrence Taylor falling on Theisman's leg and his leg just snapping and Taylor jumping up and waving for a doctor to get on the field. I continued to watch the game for another hour or so, and ABC continued to show Theisman's injury every ten minutes or so, for the benefit of people who may have just tuned in. I never watched it again, it was just too gruesome.

The scenes of 9/11 though seem more like a movie. The plane slamming into the building reminds me of that scene in "Blue Thunder" where a missile hits an office building. The buildings coming down seem like scenes of demolitions. The people in those scenes are very far away and you cannot really see their suffering. It just looks like a cool special effect rather than an agonizing or sudden death for thousands.

For me, it was very detatched. And yes, it is not dependent on the number of people involved, but also on the closeness of those people. It's traumatic for the friends and family, like I said, but that's not a huge group. The 3,000 casualties of that day do not have as many friends and family as the 40,000 who die every year in automobile accidents.

Your mileage may vary, but for me it was never as traumatic as Bush and the media wanted to make it, and I think lots of people felt the same way, except perhaps for many who just jumped on the bandwagon and would claim it was a huge deal.

[KurtNYC]

6. There has been very little domestic terrorism in the last 20 years

and they downplay most of it unless they have a war to sell. For example the MSM bent over backwards trying to say that the DC Sniper was not terrorism.

The WOT needs a villain and we just wrote OBL out of the script. I have to wonder what is coming next.

[jwirr]

4. Very well said, especially the reasons for the dislike of the USA.

Very sorry about your sister and glad that you have been able to rise above it and join us here on DU. Words cannot express the grief that all of the families felt after they lost loved ones. Thank you for sharing.

[Enthusiast]

8. K&R nt