For a long time I ruthlessly avoided any anniversary or memorial talk because it was all jingoistic patriotic war on terror nonsense. And so many more people die in so many catastrophic or worse, everyday ways, and we don't care because there's no narrative. FFS, for a long time we were losing a 9/11 of Americans to Covid every week and we've yet to have a national day of mourning for those million plus people.
And then yesterday I saw someone mention something about the helpless tv watching and panic on the day and... look, I know that a lot of people in New York, and to a lesser extent Boston and DC, absolutely have undiagnosed PTSD about it, right? Psychologists used to do studies on it, even. But I was unprepared for the flashback in what I am pretty sure is the classic sense. And it wasn't to the times when I had a legit reason to fear, earlier in the day. The "I am here in my office in the same complex as Draper" or "my co-worker & friend's parents are on a Delta flight from Boston to LA that took off this morning and he can't reach them" or "my roommates are on a plane to Boston right now" fears. It was just that feeling of getting home after being on the absolutely silent roads, watching the news showing people leaping to their deaths on endless loop for hours on end. All the physiological panic reactions, just waiting for 22 years.
God. I know the news producers were also in shock but I would love them to be held accountable for that 24 hours of coverage, and what it did to us.
I wish we could react to other tragedies with even 1% of the national trauma at unnecessary death that we felt here. Maybe if we felt that urgency and horror about /me waves hands at everything we would act. Though I suppose most of our post-9/11 actions were counterproductive, so.
no subject
For a long time I ruthlessly avoided any anniversary or memorial talk because it was all jingoistic patriotic war on terror nonsense. And so many more people die in so many catastrophic or worse, everyday ways, and we don't care because there's no narrative. FFS, for a long time we were losing a 9/11 of Americans to Covid every week and we've yet to have a national day of mourning for those million plus people.
And then yesterday I saw someone mention something about the helpless tv watching and panic on the day and... look, I know that a lot of people in New York, and to a lesser extent Boston and DC, absolutely have undiagnosed PTSD about it, right? Psychologists used to do studies on it, even. But I was unprepared for the flashback in what I am pretty sure is the classic sense. And it wasn't to the times when I had a legit reason to fear, earlier in the day. The "I am here in my office in the same complex as Draper" or "my co-worker & friend's parents are on a Delta flight from Boston to LA that took off this morning and he can't reach them" or "my roommates are on a plane to Boston right now" fears. It was just that feeling of getting home after being on the absolutely silent roads, watching the news showing people leaping to their deaths on endless loop for hours on end. All the physiological panic reactions, just waiting for 22 years.
God. I know the news producers were also in shock but I would love them to be held accountable for that 24 hours of coverage, and what it did to us.
I wish we could react to other tragedies with even 1% of the national trauma at unnecessary death that we felt here. Maybe if we felt that urgency and horror about /me waves hands at everything we would act. Though I suppose most of our post-9/11 actions were counterproductive, so.