The chat discusses 9/11

[arqueete]

n00dl3d00dl3: I remember....
n00dl3d00dl3: We had just come in from recess in 3rd grade.
n00dl3d00dl3: And the teacher had her TV on.
arqueete: Realize how after 6 years it's still affecting us, and just recall the value of life.
labellacaracol: I was in homeroom/English in 8th grade and joking with Doug Grant, watching the news, not understanding
labellacaracol: And hapless Mr. Griffin was trying to listen but he had minimal control of us and so we were too loud for the TV to be understood
labellacaracol: I remember what I was wearing, and I remember when the 8th grade principal came by and shouted at him to turn off the TV, looking frenzied
amything: I was in eighth grade at a private school. They refused to let us watch the news.
labellacaracol: Right around then, the start of next period, was when we realized as a disqueting silence fell over the room what was going on
labellacaracol: We were angry that they wouldn't let us know, and once we found out, everything was just.. really quiet.
n00dl3d00dl3: I remember asking my teacher if anyone was on the plane.
amything: Everyone was just scared. And angry that no one was telling us anything.
n00dl3d00dl3: I was just confused but not really bothered by it.
arqueete: I was getting ready for school in 5th grade. In school, we were too young to understand, the teachers were all very tense and told us to shut up and behave because this was a scary adult thing that was making them all very upset today, and a lot of parents were picking up their kids... I don't know, out of a fear for them, or maybe just out of a need to be closed to their children.
tehsexypotato: I was in 5th grade, just got out of band
tehsexypotato: Everyone was talking about the bombings and I really had no idea what wa going on * * SN *naf has been added to the conversation. *
n00dl3d00dl3: Hi SN
arqueete: I saw the second plane hit the building, live on TV. I couldn't really understand the magnitude of that.
SN: HI
amything: Yeah, a lot of kids were being called out of school during the day.
labellacaracol: It was so far away from me.. I'd never been to New York, I never knew anyone who had ever been to New York
amything: A lot of us were wondering if this meant our Spring trip to Washington D.C. was cancelled XD
SN: XD
labellacaracol: XDD
SN: Was it?
amything: BUT IT WASN'T.
SN: Good.
labellacaracol: That's where we were going to go!
labellacaracol: But ours was D:
SN: D:
amything: No, we still got to go in March or April, I forget.
amything: And it was a cool experience.
SN: Oh, the DC part.
SN: >.>
n00dl3d00dl3: I remember being mad because it was interrupting practically every channel on TV when I got home.
labellacaracol: XDD
amything: I don't think I'll ever go through that much security ever in my life again. XD
n00dl3d00dl3: I wanter to watch my cartoons. :(
n00dl3d00dl3: *wnated
n00dl3d00dl3: *wanted
SN: http://www.explosm.net/comics/
labellacaracol: I remember being like.. overwhelmed with everything
SN: *cough*
labellacaracol: And after a while being just sick of hearing about it
n00dl3d00dl3: ...XDD SN
arqueete: I was sick of it, but it felt weird and wrong somehow to sit and watch anything else.
labellacaracol: .. XD
labellacaracol: Yeah, Arq
SN: I remember not really understanding it...
SN: Like, I guess I'm morbid or something, because I just assumed that's what happens in war.
labellacaracol: It was like, how can I watch anything else, but at the same time... I can't watch this anymore because I'm essentially breathing it.
amything: When it happened, we were in Confirmation class. XD
SN: I still don't actually get why it was *that* big.
SN: Stuff way worse than that happen all the time everywhere else in the world.
labellacaracol: Yeah
SN: It's just that *we* have television.
labellacaracol: Genocides--every day.
SN: Like, Uganda.
amything: And the Religion teacher came in and whispered something to the pastor teaching us ~Lutheran doctrine~...
SN: And Rwada.
labellacaracol: Darfur
SN: And other random "andas"
labellacaracol: XDD
labellacaracol: Darfur has a genocide going on right now, actually.
amything: And what's sad is I'd been hoping all that morning that something exciting would happen for once. <_<
SN: >.>
labellacaracol: D:
SN: I'm so tired.
labellacaracol: Grandma got a phone call at the house around the time of the plane crashings, and it was cutting in and out and loud and fuzzy, someone trying to say something
arqueete: Yeah, for me 9/11 was never the scale or the deaths, it was what it meant for us as a country. Suddenly all this talk of terrorism -- and death, like Uganda and what have you -- was not far away. It was a disaster right at home that, though it was huge to us we could all comprehend it so much more.
labellacaracol: But there was stuff in the background, and then it cut off
SN: Arq, you're so philosophical.
labellacaracol: XDD
SN: I remember getting home and being mad that TRL wasn't on. >.<
labellacaracol: To be honest, Virginia Tech affected me way more
arqueete: No, I don't think I am. I'm not saying anything new.
amything: And then the pastor kinda paused and cleared his throat and said "Two planes were crashed into the World Trade Center. NOW BACK TO LUTHERAN DOCTRINE."
labellacaracol: Because it was RIGHT HERE. And it's been a part of my life.. forever.
amything: The Rest of the Class: ....WTF???
SN: I must be really morbid.
labellacaracol: I didn't even know we had those towers in New York.
labellacaracol: XD
SN: Neither did I.
amything: Psh, like any of us knew what the World Trade Center was.
labellacaracol: Yeah XD
SN: XD
arqueete: Maybe it's because we were so young, but it's like though we didn't understand it, we got the mood from the adults around us and that made us somber.
amything: I remember wondering why a plane crash was so important that they stopped class to tell us.
labellacaracol: Yeah
labellacaracol: The somber mood was definitely there.
SN: Um, we dropped Nuclear bombs on Japan.
amything: And the kids being taken home just made us scared.
SN: And killed millions of people.
labellacaracol: Yeah
n00dl3d00dl3: Brb dinner
labellacaracol: God: Mmmm radiation
n00dl3d00dl3: XDD
SN: And two towers in New York will be --XDD Shelli-- remembered so much more.
SN: America is just so... ...selfish.
labellacaracol: Well... by us.
SN: Yeah.
tehsexypotato: I don't thinl it's selfish
labellacaracol: I'm sure Japan remembers the bombs more.
labellacaracol: XDD
tehsexypotato: It happened to us, in the other one it was considered a victory.
SN: OMGIT'SPATTA
SN: I'm so hungry.
labellacaracol: But the fact that America won't turn around and acknowledge and remember the bombings like it remembers WTC; it doesn't really put everything into perspective.
arqueete: Yeah, it is, but I don't look at it in that way.
labellacaracol: Selective history is a big part of America.
SN: Yeah.
arqueete: I'm looking at it from the way of emotional impact.
SN: Like, Japanese internment.
SN: No wonder they're taking over the world.
labellacaracol: XD
SN: *is in a room of small asians*
arqueete: The bombs in Japan could not impact... me because of so many factors.
SN: Why?
arqueete: 9/11, however, could. Not just because it happened but because of how it affected my atmosphere.
labellacaracol: Proximity is a big factor.
arqueete: Why? I wasn't there. It's history to me. I can say I feel sorry for them but I don't because I can't -- to me it's just a fact, and a fact never presented to me throughout school with the gravity it should have.
arqueete: Compard to 9/11, whose effects I can feel on my life.
tehsexypotato: Mmhmm.
arqueete: *compared
arqueete: Sure, I SHOULD be just as if not more upset about other things in the world and the crap America has done through history.
arqueete: But should and do are very unfortunately two different things.