I remember talking to a friend about September 11th years later. She said, “Oh, I remember where I was and the fear that went through me.” She was in Arizona watching it all happen on her television. She had nobody who lived out here in New York. Granted, she had heartfelt sadness and worry for the people going through this, however it’s different when you’re “there” - when you are apart of the tragedy. It takes on a whole new meaning. People have disagreed with me before, but I stand firm when I say, “I understand” - I understand, because although I feel heartfelt sadness, worry and fear for the people of Japan, I am certainly not going to undermine it and say I feel the same fear and sadness that they’re going through right now. In fact, I had to turn my television off for a while so I wouldn’t hear the terrifying news about their tsunami, loss of life and the nuclear threat that looms over their heads. It’s. just. different. It’s almost the same when you hear somebody who just lost a parent. You immediately send your condolences, wish them well, perhaps pray a little, and then move on... Yet, the person experiencing the loss of their parent probably doesn’t move on for many, many years.
This doesn’t make us bad people, it makes us human. What we experience is quite “real” - as opposed to watching a real tragedy happening on TV. It makes is a tad surreal in a way. I’m even speaking about the most sensitive types of people. They just cannot comprehend the depths of it all, as would someone being in the middle of it all. It takes on a whole new meaning. For the person witnessing, experiencing it all, perhaps they have a loved one who was injured or killed. People know friends who were lost in the tragedy. This makes it “real”. I remember having a little debate with my friend from Arizona about the mosque being built near ground zero. Most people within the New York area highly disagreed with the building of the mosque due to the insensitivity of it - not because of the racial issues that were suggested. Especially families who had lost their loved ones in that terrible tragedy were outraged - I mean outraged that there was even a slight inkling, a thought to even attempt to build a mosque near ground zero. Those were the people who “felt” it harder than those who hadn’t lost anyone on 9/11.
Everybody deals with tragedy differently. Some handle it more sensitively than others, while some just ‘wish them well’, and then move on. And that's okay. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people. It’s just human nature.
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