Re: On September 11

[vladb]

Although initial reaction could have been to mark this post as an OT and vote on it accordingly, I gave it ++ as I feel it's important to devote some time for rememberance in every community, be it an on-line forum, and even a too technically inclined one. On this day of rememberance, we should expect (and I welcome) solemn posts here and there. In all, this will only attest to the fact that we are all humans afterall, no matter if you code Perl or C++ or any other language.

At this very moment, I'm listening to a local radio talk show. They are covering September 11 events.. rehashing on what occurred on that fateful day. I feel tramendous pain for the people who perished in those towers.

God bless them all.

Update: It would be interesting to learn what an average Perl monk did on that day?

I recall being awaken by my brother who happened to get on cnn.com in the early hour. He was telling me of a plane hitting one of the towers. I certainly didn't clue in and thought he was just goofing off. I've had plenty of Perl coding late last night and wasn't up to the task of getting up early. Nontheless, I managed to turn my radio on. I couldn't it what I heard... I then went on-line and read breaking coverage as well as some live feeds provided by CNN. In about 10-20 minutes I had to drop my sister at her university. Upon our arrival, we noticed entire staff transfixed on the single TV in the student lobby. I was instantly glued and watched the horrific events as they unfolded right in front of my eyes. Seeing 2500 something people perish as each of the towers fell was surreal and unbelievable. This is certainly a day to remember for all of us ;/

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# Under Construction

[Aristotle]

I shall refrain commenting further on this or the initial node, since I feel it is better to say nothing at all than be inflammatory (and note I'm not disrespecting the WTC victims at all). Just please do remember that at least as many souls die an unjust death every day that passes as in that single incident. The amount of blood spilled each day on average makes us rather a more savage society now that we call ourselves "civilized" than ever before.

No, the WTC bombings were not insignificant. I just have the awfully recurrent impression that people lose sight of the much larger picture when the much larger picture takes place outside their doorstep.

To anyone who lost friends and relatives in NY last year, my condolences.

Makeshifts last the longest.

[Sifmole]

The difference is that that many people died an "unjust" death in two very high profile places in a very high profile way. I would like you to point out 5 such days in the past 365 where 2000 plus people have died within one square city block in under one hour. Such an occurance is actually fairly rare and worth remembering.

Each life is special, each death important to those it touches. These deaths touched many, it is truly that simple.

[Aristotle]

Sigh. I can't stop myself from commenting.. my question is: how does the significance of 5000 deaths change at all, when they were all in one very high profile place, as opposed to if they happen scattered all over a country? Don't they touch just as many?

The reason I feel uncomfortable discussing this under such circumstances is that it easily makes it seem as though I'm downplaying the 9 11 events, when that is absolutely not my intention. I do find it worth noting how such a debate hardly ever arises at other occasions, though..

Sigh (meant as a pretty all-encompassing one about state of mankind in general, not this thread).

Makeshifts last the longest.

[joshua]

It would be interesting to learn what an average Perl monk did on that day?

I was playing the piano when my dad called from work and said to turn on the TV. If I remember right...no sooner had I sat down behind the TV, than the plane flew into tower #2. I remained behind the TV for 2 days until I realized that me watching it wasn't going to help anything.

Joshua

BTW, 9-11-01 was the day I started learning Perl. I received my first Perl book from Amazon.com that afternoon.