The Obligatory 9/11 Post

Some guy walked past me today and yelled, "Happy 9/11. Too bad we didn't lose more!"

I'm going to side with sarcasm and dry humor on this one. Perhaps even go as far as to say it was an abstract coping mechanism. He didn't offend me; just annoyed me like anyone else who speaks to me in the morning on my way to work.

Here's my brief September 11th memory and ultimate conclusion. I was living in Chicago at the time. I was trying to sleep-in that morning as I was working 4 jobs (not kidding), but my phone was ringing off the hook. It wouldn't stop and I was pissed because I never got to sleep. Finally my roommate, who had been let off work early, ran into my room screaming, "The world's at war!" I stumbled into the living room and watched as the planes slammed into the World Trade Center.

My roommate suggested we go to lunch, which I remember felt disrespectful in some way. (Ironically, she worked a night job at a restaurant. She came home from her shift that night saying that she couldn't believe people were going out to eat. Wait - didn't you suggest lunch earlier?)

Aside from the melancholy feeling that filled the air, the conspiracy theories that were sent via email chain letters and Chicagoans' predictions that the Sears Tower was next (my boyfriend at the time worked there and was subject to mock emergency exit drills from the 83rd floor down), life did not change much. I was not personally affected, but was sympathetic.

I heard this weekend on the news that the people who lost loved ones on Flight 93 are disturbed that they are not getting as much sympathy as those who lost family members in the WTC. Calm down, you both got a movie. Our collective attention can only be divided so much. In my opinion, unfortunate and unfair deaths occur around the world daily. I am just as sympathetic to those Iraqis I never knew as I am to any American I never knew. Our losses are no more tragic than theirs. While ours were great, there exist much worse.

American or not, all should be remembered equally.