Quote:
Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
If you didn't attend any 9-11 funerals, or work or live south of Canal Street in Manhattan, then the only way that you were affected was by choice, and very, very minimal.
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Sorry, but that's just bull. It's gone far enough. It's insulting.
There were a lot of ways to be affected deeply by the events that day.
People all over the world had friends or relatives who were killed or injured that day.
The people in the four airplanes didn't necessarily work "South of Canal Street and they (and their families) were certainly affected. How about those in the Pentagon and their loved ones?
The company I worked for at the time had a facility at 17 Battery Place (that's the building immediately next to the Downtown Athletic Club, just down West Street from WTC) and a place in Battery Park City where I spent a lot of time. Both were trashed and closed for a long time, and it was several days before we knew the fate of all of our co-workers there. We moved the orgination point for Oxygen and Classic Sports Network to Denver because of damage to the facility. When we were in town working at the facility, we often stayed at the Marriott which was destroyed.
A lot of my friends from my days with NBC were in the thick of the coverage. When I saw video of a trashed unmarked microwave truck, I worried that it was someone I'd worked with. I called a friend who is Senior Director at NBC News and volunteered to help if they could get me anywhere I might be needed. Of course, they couldn't.
A good friend who worked just North of WTC, and who is fairly overweight, RAN all the way to Grand Central in the dust and smoke.
You didn't have to live in Manhattan to be deeply affected by September 11. Everyone was affected in some way or another. Remember the six degrees of separation? An awful lot of people had friends there. How about the residents of Oklahoma City who were forced to relive the Murrah Building bombing?
Was it as bad for the rest of us? Of course not. But to say that others weren't affected is remarkably crass.
We all feel for our friends in the city who definitely took the brunt, but let's get off the high horse. And how about giving the Canadians a break, too. They don't deserve this crap.l