in answer to EdLove and Andy (in explaination to some of the phenom you were writing on has been put in a blog... so as not to weigh down and blow out string.)
i disagree with OotV's response. not all of it though. i can understand that many of us don't have a first person experience of terrorism. but, that does not excuse the extreme over reaction by the news media and the city of boston. these suspected "bombs" had been in place 2-3 weeks, and were in 10 major cities. pretty much everywhere else disregarded them as junk. threw them away.
to arrest someone for essentially leaving a lite brite around town, well, that's stupid. now, had the artists involved called in a bomb threat, different story.
should jason graham be arrested for leaving tv's with his artwork on them around town? they contain the same bomb-like components as the failed guerrilla marketing. you know, wires, circuit boards and such. and, like the items left in 10 cities (Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia - 9 of which didn't go ape crank) jason graham's artwork didn't contain the key elements of a bomb, ya know, explosives.
finally, new york didn't have a fit over this same incident.
Very good piece. Yes, nobody who wasn't directly effected will ever be able to know what it was like during the 9/11 attacks. My only difference would be that there is such a NorthEast provincialism that exists in the media that people elsewhere in the country get tired of it. From the 9/11 attacks ,to the sports mania if any team from NY wins to the lowering of the New Year's ball. If any other city wins a World Series, you get the feeling New Yorkers are saying " Well, sure they are excited, there is nothing else in that town". When the Oklahoma City Federal building was bombed and destroyed, I do remember hearing, "If it had happened in New York City, people would be more outraged" as if the lives in Oklahoma were not as valuable.
I in no way want to diminish what happened at the Trade Center Building, but, just a perspective from the other coast. It may take a terrorist attack here for people to ever truly get it.
1. Though it took them a while to notice,
Boston has reason to be jittery, really severe in it's noticing of things, and this was a really dumb thing to do.
I think at least two to three of the planes hijacked on 9/11 came out of Boston. So they're sensitive.
2. Unless you were part of the area that was seriously affected by the Terrorist attacks of 9/11, you will not have clue one as to what it's like to know that such attacks can happen, can happen when you feel very safe, that these things shatter your sense of security on the deepest of levels, -and that you never really come back from it completely.
3. Immed. following the attacks, (as in for months,) we were getting hundreds of calls from all of the boroughs, and all over the tri-state area for bombs, suspicious behaviors, (etc. etc.)
--Over there folks are suspicious of luggage left unnattended, commuter bags that are also unnattended,
and I've had commuter trains (that I was on,) emptied because some idiot had a powdered donut, and left the powder on the seat of the train...)
---That may sound really funny to some people... But here in the 'no they did not have anthrax attacks either, we did.
4. As diplomatically as I can state this, please understand the experience from where it comes:
This area has NOT had a major terrorist attack take place.
Hopefully it never will.
Hopefully folks will be afforded their innocence/ignorance by which they can look at a town or city, suddenly grip in fear and concern, and see it from a distance and consider those affected in such a manner as 'alarmist.'
In short: Be glad that you can take such an assumed dismissive stance, and I recommend that you take full advantage of the peace that comes with the complaint of boredom and the comment '...nothing happens here, we are a backwater...'
-Back home?
Every time there is a significant overwhelming scent in the air, Everytime there is a heavy rumor,
Anytime somebody does some stupid prank, just to remind us how vulnerable we really are, (which happens a lot more than folks out here ever are aware of,) or some disturbed twit decides he wants to be famous or make a point and wander onto mass transit or any building in public with a backpack and a deathwish?
-We have to worry about them being by themself and simply having a bad day? or if they have friends in the effort. (People who were involved in the attack actually lived in the surrounding communities around NYC for years prior to the WTC attack.)
We're all reminded that we lost a lot of great people five years ago, and could loose a lot more at any given time, and that, despite all best efforts, there really is NO such thing as one hundred percent safe from any planned effort to kill a lot of people. (We're still finding pieces of our dead, every day that they're trying to 'rebuild,' back there too... Most folks had a wooden box with some ash given them to mourn and bury five years ago...
(No matter where you live, anymore on the planet, though it sounds like a cliche'?
Public safety and defence has to get it right 100% of the time, somebody looking to do great harm has to succeed only 'once.'
-Also be glad that you don't have to call home, when the odd, stale news blip actually does make it to the 'no,
-that you don't have to get on your cel phone and leave voice mail messages with such things as '...um, not trying to freak you out, nor freak out over here... but they're talking about '__________,' and I just wanted to be sure you guys were all okay...'
It's not:
'when cartoon characters take over, the terrorists have one,'
it's:
'when we assume that nobody would bother to do something like THAT over HERE,,, (and isn't screwing with the public sense of safety and well-being cute') --that stupidity has won.
-Eric Field
WTC attacks (9/11 day-of)
(Civilian First Responder: First Aid, Crowd Handling, on-site triage)
on-site Chaplain
Second post
in answer to EdLove and Andy (in explaination to some of the phenom you were writing on has been put in a blog... so as not to weigh down and blow out string.)
It's long.
i disagree...
i disagree with OotV's response. not all of it though. i can understand that many of us don't have a first person experience of terrorism. but, that does not excuse the extreme over reaction by the news media and the city of boston. these suspected "bombs" had been in place 2-3 weeks, and were in 10 major cities. pretty much everywhere else disregarded them as junk. threw them away.
to arrest someone for essentially leaving a lite brite around town, well, that's stupid. now, had the artists involved called in a bomb threat, different story.
should jason graham be arrested for leaving tv's with his artwork on them around town? they contain the same bomb-like components as the failed guerrilla marketing. you know, wires, circuit boards and such. and, like the items left in 10 cities (Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia - 9 of which didn't go ape crank) jason graham's artwork didn't contain the key elements of a bomb, ya know, explosives.
finally, new york didn't have a fit over this same incident.
Well Said but...
Very good piece. Yes, nobody who wasn't directly effected will ever be able to know what it was like during the 9/11 attacks. My only difference would be that there is such a NorthEast provincialism that exists in the media that people elsewhere in the country get tired of it. From the 9/11 attacks ,to the sports mania if any team from NY wins to the lowering of the New Year's ball. If any other city wins a World Series, you get the feeling New Yorkers are saying " Well, sure they are excited, there is nothing else in that town". When the Oklahoma City Federal building was bombed and destroyed, I do remember hearing, "If it had happened in New York City, people would be more outraged" as if the lives in Oklahoma were not as valuable.
I in no way want to diminish what happened at the Trade Center Building, but, just a perspective from the other coast. It may take a terrorist attack here for people to ever truly get it.
Trust me on this....
1. Though it took them a while to notice,
Boston has reason to be jittery, really severe in it's noticing of things, and this was a really dumb thing to do.
I think at least two to three of the planes hijacked on 9/11 came out of Boston. So they're sensitive.
2. Unless you were part of the area that was seriously affected by the Terrorist attacks of 9/11, you will not have clue one as to what it's like to know that such attacks can happen, can happen when you feel very safe, that these things shatter your sense of security on the deepest of levels, -and that you never really come back from it completely.
3. Immed. following the attacks, (as in for months,) we were getting hundreds of calls from all of the boroughs, and all over the tri-state area for bombs, suspicious behaviors, (etc. etc.)
--Over there folks are suspicious of luggage left unnattended, commuter bags that are also unnattended,
and I've had commuter trains (that I was on,) emptied because some idiot had a powdered donut, and left the powder on the seat of the train...)
---That may sound really funny to some people... But here in the 'no they did not have anthrax attacks either, we did.
4. As diplomatically as I can state this, please understand the experience from where it comes:
This area has NOT had a major terrorist attack take place.
Hopefully it never will.
Hopefully folks will be afforded their innocence/ignorance by which they can look at a town or city, suddenly grip in fear and concern, and see it from a distance and consider those affected in such a manner as 'alarmist.'
In short: Be glad that you can take such an assumed dismissive stance, and I recommend that you take full advantage of the peace that comes with the complaint of boredom and the comment '...nothing happens here, we are a backwater...'
-Back home?
Every time there is a significant overwhelming scent in the air, Everytime there is a heavy rumor,
Anytime somebody does some stupid prank, just to remind us how vulnerable we really are, (which happens a lot more than folks out here ever are aware of,) or some disturbed twit decides he wants to be famous or make a point and wander onto mass transit or any building in public with a backpack and a deathwish?
-We have to worry about them being by themself and simply having a bad day? or if they have friends in the effort. (People who were involved in the attack actually lived in the surrounding communities around NYC for years prior to the WTC attack.)
We're all reminded that we lost a lot of great people five years ago, and could loose a lot more at any given time, and that, despite all best efforts, there really is NO such thing as one hundred percent safe from any planned effort to kill a lot of people. (We're still finding pieces of our dead, every day that they're trying to 'rebuild,' back there too... Most folks had a wooden box with some ash given them to mourn and bury five years ago...
(No matter where you live, anymore on the planet, though it sounds like a cliche'?
Public safety and defence has to get it right 100% of the time, somebody looking to do great harm has to succeed only 'once.'
-Also be glad that you don't have to call home, when the odd, stale news blip actually does make it to the 'no,
-that you don't have to get on your cel phone and leave voice mail messages with such things as '...um, not trying to freak you out, nor freak out over here... but they're talking about '__________,' and I just wanted to be sure you guys were all okay...'
It's not:
'when cartoon characters take over, the terrorists have one,'
it's:
'when we assume that nobody would bother to do something like THAT over HERE,,, (and isn't screwing with the public sense of safety and well-being cute') --that stupidity has won.
-Eric Field
WTC attacks (9/11 day-of)
(Civilian First Responder: First Aid, Crowd Handling, on-site triage)
on-site Chaplain
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