Not to ignite this - but if I had been there, I would of been scared, I don't care how many years had passed.
The smell of the buildings burning for days and being in the area the morning it happened will sit with me forever. Watching it burn from my safe haven in NJ was so scary I didnt leave my apartment for days. Every plane flying overhead scared the crap out of me. Call me a chicken, I dont care. Not being able to call my friends and make sure they were ok is not an ok mental exercise. Driving past the site, not even 2 weeks later on the way to meet my friends that I was scared about in the first place (thank goodness they were ok), and watching ground zero STILL smoking is also a memory burning moment. The STENCH alone is something I'll remember forever. Years ago when I was much much younger... 13-14? I was sitting in the office of my parent's body shop when there was an explosion in the back. My step father was smoking while mixing paint (stupid ass) and in the space of about a half hour, the entire shop went up in flames. Fierce hot and alive. My mother was beside herself with panic and grief and shock. When you are RIGHT THERE next to catastrophe, YOU NEVER EVER FORGET. No where near 9/11 catastrophe, but for a little kid, to watch her parents entire livlihood go up in flames, it's not something easy to ever put behind you if the threat of anything close to that ever surfaces again. And the feelings never go away. And the body's immediate defense and panic modes trigger. Whilst some of the NY'ers backlash might be "arm chair quarterbacking and the lemming effect" there are quite a lot of people that live, work and play in the city that WERE RIGHT THERE on 9/11, covered in soot, hysterical because their friends were on the top floors or watched their co-workers jump from the windows because jumping was better than burning to death. OR they were fellow fire fighters, police officers, medics, etc that had to pull dead people out of the wreckage where there were even bodies to pull out. And to tell them to "get over it" really is quite "uncharitable". I understand NY'ers think they are a breed upon themselves, but in the end - they are just fellow humans with actual feelings. Just because you can let past atrocities have little effect on you after years go by, and have the mental aptitude to harden yourself against being scared, doesnt mean everyone can. It appears this is going to be a topic where everyone will have to respectfully agree to disagree because I really don't see a reason to insult anyone here on this topic. It's going to be "to each their own". Bottom line, the guy in charge did wrong. On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 2:50 AM, Maureen <[email protected]> wrote: > I repeat, people. Get real. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:296479 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
