What an amazing story. It's so personal in how it puts me right into Michael Wright's perspective--I'm not sure I've cried like that since I lost my dad about ten years ago. I've always been kind...
What an amazing story. It's so personal in how it puts me right into Michael Wright's perspective--I'm not sure I've cried like that since I lost my dad about ten years ago.
I've always been kind of a weirdo about 9/11. When it happened, I was 19 years old, and I've just...never really cared. To me, roughly 3,000 deaths in New York was the same as 3,000 deaths in Iraq--these were people I didn't know and felt no connection to. Despite being an American, I've never felt patriotic or proud of that fact (I'm grateful to be an American in a lot of ways, but not proud); I feel much worse about civilian deaths in the Middle East than I do about those here. The net result may be positive--having killed terrorists, we may have prevented them from killing more civilians than we have killed--but I feel that the injustice we have caused in response to 9/11 is far worse than the injustice of 9/11, itself.
Having said that, personal stories like these help me to understand the magnitude of 9/11. It doesn't make me feel patriotic or proud to be American, but it helps me to sympathize with those involved, to feel connected with people I don't know and will never meet, and to care about the losses. I've always been against violence, but stories like these help solidify that stance even more.
P.S. I wish I were able to post this comment anonymously. If not already, I'm sure this comment will get me put on a list somewhere...
This old ~tildes.official daily discussion topic might interest you: https://tildes.net/~tildes.official/2x3/daily_tildes_discussion_allowing_users_to_post_anonymously
P.S. I wish I were able to post this comment anonymously.
What an amazing story. It's so personal in how it puts me right into Michael Wright's perspective--I'm not sure I've cried like that since I lost my dad about ten years ago.
I've always been kind of a weirdo about 9/11. When it happened, I was 19 years old, and I've just...never really cared. To me, roughly 3,000 deaths in New York was the same as 3,000 deaths in Iraq--these were people I didn't know and felt no connection to. Despite being an American, I've never felt patriotic or proud of that fact (I'm grateful to be an American in a lot of ways, but not proud); I feel much worse about civilian deaths in the Middle East than I do about those here. The net result may be positive--having killed terrorists, we may have prevented them from killing more civilians than we have killed--but I feel that the injustice we have caused in response to 9/11 is far worse than the injustice of 9/11, itself.
Having said that, personal stories like these help me to understand the magnitude of 9/11. It doesn't make me feel patriotic or proud to be American, but it helps me to sympathize with those involved, to feel connected with people I don't know and will never meet, and to care about the losses. I've always been against violence, but stories like these help solidify that stance even more.
P.S. I wish I were able to post this comment anonymously. If not already, I'm sure this comment will get me put on a list somewhere...
This old ~tildes.official daily discussion topic might interest you:
https://tildes.net/~tildes.official/2x3/daily_tildes_discussion_allowing_users_to_post_anonymously