Posted by herdthinner at slip-32-101-160-36.ma.us.prserv.net on September 11, 2001 at 19:44:16:
In Reply to: Bigger problem than today's tragedy posted by 80sgirl on September 11, 2001 at 19:20:41:
While not condoning the various thoughtless remarks made here and there today, it is, indeed, the nature of many to deal with the unthinkable by just... for a lack of a better term, brainfarting. Saying whatever comes to mind. Like one of my britpals in a chat session today blurting out comments like the "psycho in a cowboy hat" (Bush) randomly nuking people - hysterical glee being optional. Then in PMs he kept apologizing to me and explained that his mind had shut off and that he had no control over what he was saying. Understandable. The person who posted about the comic books reposted that she(?), too, was emotionally exhausted and had taken a mental break to latch onto something more easily graspable - ie, comic books, and would they be available? My honest comment on that? I was wondering, too! And when Bryan made his comment about an IDEA being responsible for this destruction, then followed up immediately to stop anyone from referencing "Dogma" and what it said about "ideas," well - guilty for thinking of that, too!
Consider the often black humor of police officers and detectives, dealing day in and day out with the evils that humans are capable of. For many, if they didn't make jokes about their work, they'd go insane. Mel Brooks movies are packed with Hitler jokes, and he had relatives who were killed during the Holocaust.
Just this afternoon I got a delivery of author copies of one of my books from my publisher. My first thought was to call him and thank him, but didn't. Why? Where do you think most book publishers are, including mine? NEW YORK CITY! He could even have worked in the WTC, for all I know, and I was giddy about my book copies. Naturally my concern NOW is finding out if he's okay, but like I said, brainfarting.
Except for my earlier post about npr.org's live feed, I've been lurking today, then figured I'd delurk to post this before logging off. Exhausted? Yes. CNN's footage just keeps getting more and more intense as ground-level, amateur videos are aired, so my apologies if all I can think of at this point is, "Shit, this is like a movie. An intense, violent, special-effects-laden movie," and it isn't! Dear God in Heaven, it isn't!
Signing off...