Posted by D_Aubrey at h24-76-140-102.vs.shawcable.net on September 11, 2001 at 16:25:16:
Look, I've been awake since early on in this crisis. I've been through a lot this morning. I watched live as the World Trade Center collapsed. I saw an airplane fly into the backside of a skyscraper. Then I was shocked to find out that every one of those planes was headed to California, full of fuel, making this a highly premeditated attack.
People, I actually broke out in tears over this tragedy more than once today, so I really don't appreciate being told I'm a worthless, horrible fuck because I took a break from staring in horror at CNN to address a concern that I can more easily get a grasp on.
There's only so much difficult reality you can take in one dose before you need to return to something familiar in your life.
And you say I'm an asshole because I can think of something other than mass tragedy today? Well, excuse me for not sinking into my own despair while I sit powerless, distant from the tragedy, and unable to do anything to help. If I could get there, I'd give all the blood they'd take. But I'm not. I'm nowhere. All I'm doing is sitting and waiting for the final upshot. I've got the facts. I know that there has been massive tragedy all around the northeast quarter of the country. I know that people have lost their young ones.
I know that there are children in Palestine right now, dancing in the streets with joy because the evil America has been taught a lesson.
What very few know is why this happened, who did it, and what the repercussions will be. And I'm sorry if the only concern I can raise is the state of the comics industry, but what else is there that I can ask? Do any of you have an useful information, or are you just going to sit around saying, "This is horrible," and, "You are a horrible fuck for not caring enough."?
Well, you have no right to tell me I don't care enough about this. This is a tragedy that hits so close to home that it threatens to consume us all. So if you can't handle that I don't want to be swallowed by the task of personally mourning the passengers and crew of four downed planes, and the many people hurt and killed in the aftermath, then I have nothing to say to you, because you just do not understand what this is doing to me.
I apologize for the tone of my previous message. I feel that I did not exercise enough tact in stating my question. But thanks to Insane Ian for answering my question without feeling the need to vent his grief on me.