I was in 7th grade science class when it happened but honestly I was to young to realize the gravity of the situation. We got to watch it on tv in the next class period and we were told about how important it was but it didnt matter to me at the time. In all honesty it still doesnt really matter to me.
What did 9/11 do to you kids? (Read beyond thread title and relate to the OP or so help me)
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xDarc said:P.S. READ THE POST- it's not the incident itself, it's the turning point from where everything changed fromto
I mean, that's got to be it, right? That's why I can hardly relate at all to people even 5 or 6 years younger than me, at 28?
I thought about my time growing up to put things in perspective.
In third grade the Berlin Wall came down and people were happy. A little while later, the Soviet Union collapsed and people breathed easier. In fifth grade we watched the armed forces whoop the snot out of the Iraqis on CNN, it was no contest and people were only miffed that we had to stop without getting Saddam. No one was ever really scared.
The rest of the 90's were marked by cool, upbeat, pop-culture and economic prosperity. People were concerned with things like living longer, the graying baby boomers wanted more health care, and they wanted to know what to do with their boat loads of cash. You could quit a job and get another one that same day.
The OKC bombing in 95' left a bit of a bad taste, but the lone militia nut angle let people quickly dismiss it with humorous quips about survivalist types. Honestly, the whole Waco thing in 93' already primed us for a character like McVeigh and it was just as quickly forgotten.
It was a time with few threats and little to be afraid of, and it left my childhood happy and care free.
By the time everything started going to shit in 2001, I was 19 years old and was more or less an adult. So things registered to me as cause and effect, not so much as "Behold! Young one! This is the world, and my, my- is it not frightening!"
What I wonder is- what is it like to be a child, to grow up surrounded by so much fear, war, bleak economic prospects and so little hope? Did you see your parents change? Did they argue and fight about what was going around them? Did the kids at school still easily make light of the world erupting into war or did they try their damnedest to ignore it and live in it's shadow?
Just curious. I really think being young or adolescent around that time warped a fair number of folks.
I'm an adult (35) and was an adult or teenager through a lot of this. A lot of people do not like my perspective, especially when I start talking about what I think we should actually be doing in "The Middle East" nowadays.
I think one of the problems with the youth today, and the way things turned out here, was that during the economic upswing of the 1990s we had a heavily liberal goverment and kids were not being taught the things they needed to know due to political correctness. The desire for self validation, and for the extreme left wing baby boomers to instill their ethics through the education system meant that there was very little taught about "current events", with a lot of the more recent developments after "World War II" being glossed over. This lead to the perception that the times of "darkness" were over and that the world was a happy place full of understanding, and the really 'evil' people were tiny fringe minorities.
See, I grew up as a young kid with Iranians blowing up planes, a botched attempt to rescue hostages in The Middle East (even if I didn't understand it then), tensions with Libya and Colonel Kadolfi , and similar things. When I was a kid the media presented "The Taliban", the same guys now, as heroic freedom fighters against Russian oppression. I remember being shown pictures of kids holding guns and RPGs in magazines and being told (and feeling) that I was indeed very lucky. Then of course there was the whole incident where a famous writer was forced into hiding because he dared to criticize Islam in a book called "Satanic Verses" and had a bounty put on his head. There were many, many things going on.... I never had any illusions about "The Middle East" in paticular, but also still remember what was going on with the USSR before their collapse.
The 1990s for me were a brief respite, and I find it disturbing that kids raised during that period of peace were not taught things that had happened right beforehand. I find it mind numbing when I hear younger people talking about how "aren't the Russians are friends?" despite the current activities (Georgia, Ukraine assaination attempt, recent spy ring bust, threatening Poland) because they really have no conception of "The Cold War" other than the words themselves, and don't see the big picture of Russia's "reform" being more or less a lull in between what is the same behavior.
For me 9/11 wasn't a stand alone incident, it was the most intense of a long line of incidents that had been steadily escalating over a period of time. One of the reasons why I am so militant about it, and judge the entire culture and region harshly rather than focusing on "Al Queda" like a lot of idealistic boomers, and the younger generation do. To me Al Queda is simply the newest face of a long standing problem, and if we defeat them entirely, it doesn't matter because the culture is just going to produce the same thing again with a differant face, because no problem we have ever dealt with has changed things down there. I pretty much see things as being like dealing with a weed, where it always grows back until you kill the roots. However since people are involved, a lot of people don't like that perspective.
I'll also say that while Reagan was one of my favorite presidents, I am very much against his taking down "The Berlin Wall". I feel the people who put that there did it for a reason and knew what they were doing at the time. The wall didn't even last an entire generation, and I feel given a couple of generations many of the human issues would have solved themselves as people died off and developed seperatly from that point onward. I understand the moral principles, but to be blunt I do not trust Germany after two world wars. Also I think teaching about World War II improperly caused a lot of people to get some bad ideas about things. See, for all of Germany's "reforms and changes" we saw that between World War I and World War II, Hitler was also not a fringe psycho but massively popular (an international man of the year in fact). There weren't enough Germans to occupy the land he conquered, unlike the movies, he was successful because in taking a lot of those nations the people themselves supported him. It can get very contreversial. One of the reasons why the propaganda campaigns were so intense during the war is because of his popularity. He wasn't a raving monster like is presented (the real clips chosen for propaganda and historical purposes were picked for a reason), he was more akin to "the Devil", extremely charismatic, very likable, and absolutly right about 99.9% of what he said. It's that 0.1% you had to watch out for, and where things got bad, but he was so charismatic and so good at doing things that few people caught up in the war saw it. People who compare unpopular leaders to the guy miss the point entirely.
At any rate, when I look at Germany's new face, their reforms, and everything else, I get this sense of historical Deja Vu (at 35 I was not around during World War II, but I think I learned about it a bit differantly from a lot of the younger generation, and have also done some independant reading). I also find it terrifying how powerful German has become, and how quickly it recovered once that wall went down, which was the point of putting it there to begin with. My mistrust is not based on anything specific that I know they are actually doing, but by precedent, and I think if people learned about Hitler, World War II, The Treaty Of Marsailles (I think I have that right), and other bits in more detail, I think they would be more wary as well.
Apologies for the length, I guess what I'm getting into is a differance in perspective coming from a 1980s childhood compared to a 1990s one. Though understand that I am a lot more right wing, than left wing, as well. I am also "militant" in that I do not believe in the philsophy of "Peace at any price" and instead hold to ideals like "you can either have freedom, or safety, never both" and similar things. I don't think that war can end without a world unity, and even then I believe there will still be violence an conflict, including some happening on a large scale.
We live in England, so we just laughed it off.
Disclaimer: This wasn't meant to offend Americans. I'm just saying what happened. [sub]Bloody insensitive Americans.[/sub]
[sub][sub][color=F8F8F8That wasn't meant to offend either. So don't you go flaming me[/color][/sub][/sub]
Disclaimer: This wasn't meant to offend Americans. I'm just saying what happened. [sub]Bloody insensitive Americans.[/sub]
[sub][sub][color=F8F8F8That wasn't meant to offend either. So don't you go flaming me[/color][/sub][/sub]
I remember where I was at the time. I'd had lunch, come back, done my after-lunch job, tidied it up and settled in to listen to nothing much for a while when someone who was watching TV rather than doing his job typed a very short message into our text chat window, along the lines of: "a plane has crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York."
My first thought was: "Oh, Palestinian suicide-bombers getting a bit more ambitious than usual, then." My second was to wonder which country we were going to turn into wasteland for it.
In the longer term, it was used as the pretext for all sorts of stuff that eventually led to me quitting that job. Cost me maybe half a million, but what the hell at least I'm not working for Dick Cheney.
My first thought was: "Oh, Palestinian suicide-bombers getting a bit more ambitious than usual, then." My second was to wonder which country we were going to turn into wasteland for it.
In the longer term, it was used as the pretext for all sorts of stuff that eventually led to me quitting that job. Cost me maybe half a million, but what the hell at least I'm not working for Dick Cheney.
This. Imagine being born in the middle east around 11/9 2001. Now those children are 10 and have seen war and violence their whole life while the media hides away the mass casaulties amongst civilians.Darktau said:Im sorry but people in the larger countries, america, the UK, europe etc. can get stuffed for all I care, I feel more sympathy to children who grow up in war torn countries with little water a food, fear will kill you slower than a lack of water. And im sure kids would love school over there aswellxDarc said:
The only way something like 9/11 altered my life was when the 7/7 London bombings happened, mainly because I was in the centre of London at the time!
I nearly crapped myself when I heard what happened as I could have been on that bus!
It hasn't changed me really, I just distrust double decker buses from now on as potential terrorist targets!
I nearly crapped myself when I heard what happened as I could have been on that bus!
It hasn't changed me really, I just distrust double decker buses from now on as potential terrorist targets!
Exactly this, I feel bad for those who lost loved ones but life goes on. I used to live in Berlin and I was there when the Wall came down so that was pretty life altering but that was because I didnt have to go through multitudes of checkpoints to get to school anymorefullbleed said:
Well my mother tryed to foce me light a candle and shut up for a minute but she failed and in school we was suppose to shut up for 5 mins and I went fu** that sh** and for the rest it didin't afect me exept that I thinked it was awesome to see planes raming into two big buildings and see them fall to rubbles....
Truth be told, I honestly can't remember a time when people weren't depressed over a war, natural disaster, economic crisis or the way the country was being run. One of my earliest memories was seeing my parents cuss out the radio when they heard Bush was elected. I was eight when the towers fell, and it took me a while to really understand the gravity of the situation, but when I did, I adopted the same dejected attitude towards the general state of things as everyone else. That's not to say I didn't grow up well; everyone was still happy, but you got the sense that they wished things were back the way they were. As someone who's got less than a year before legal adulthood, I think it's safe to say we're inheriting a world with far more problems than the one our parents had.
Maybe it's because I live in Canada and didn't experience the same level of fear as those living the US after 9/11, but I think it's really douchey to say "what is it like to be a child, to grow up surrounded by so much fear, war, bleak economic prospects and so little hope".
9/11 was a tragedy, there's absolutely no doubt about that. But the US is not exactly a war-torn country. Even with all the war and fighting, you still get to live your lives day to day without any fear, and despite your "economic depression" you still have just about the highest living standard in the world. Sure, you have to hear in the news how many carbombs went off in whatever country that day, and the American deathcount overseas continues to go up, and maybe that scares you a little - but you get to hear it all from your comfy little couch, wrapped in a Snuggie and drinking hot chocolate.
Ask a kid in Iraq what it was like growing up surrounded by "so much fear, war, bleak economic prospects and so little hope".
9/11 was a tragedy, there's absolutely no doubt about that. But the US is not exactly a war-torn country. Even with all the war and fighting, you still get to live your lives day to day without any fear, and despite your "economic depression" you still have just about the highest living standard in the world. Sure, you have to hear in the news how many carbombs went off in whatever country that day, and the American deathcount overseas continues to go up, and maybe that scares you a little - but you get to hear it all from your comfy little couch, wrapped in a Snuggie and drinking hot chocolate.
Ask a kid in Iraq what it was like growing up surrounded by "so much fear, war, bleak economic prospects and so little hope".
I happened to be flying into america for my 6th birthday on Sept 11 2001 luckily i was going to disneyland not new york. the only way that i comprehended something was wrong was that the park got closed. it took another five years before i knew what had happened.
I was 10 then and I thought the same thing that I do now. It sucks for them but at least nobody I knew was there.
I was six so I no idea what had happened and never knew that anything had happened for a while. For me at the time it was just a no school day. When I got older and completely understood what happened I could hardly bring myself to feel all sad or anything because no one I knew died. I was more worried about the time I was to spend the night at my grandparents' house but we didn't for some reason and found out they were home invaded that night.
I was in second grade when the 9/11 attacks occurred. I remember going into my classroom, the lights were off and the TV was turned to the news and two buildings were burning. I knew, as a kid, that this was a big deal, but I didn't understand why. I was too young to even know what the World Trade Centers were. I wasn't allowed to go near the TV for a while after that, but life went on. I had a happy childhood more or less, but the older I got, the more frustrated I became when I started paying attention to politics. Bush was an idiot, and now we live in this economically gimp present because of him and his policies (or should I say Cheney's?)
As a 16 year old now, its frustrating because I can't get a fucking job anywhwere.
EDIT: Oh sorry, got distracted by a completely separate set of issues there:
Anyway, to answer your original question, 9/11 all in all had no real deep impact on me. The only difference its really made is made airport security a little tighter. *shrugs* I didn't know anyone who died, or people who had people the knew who died. Hell, we don't even do the moment of silence on 9/11 in school anymore.
As a 16 year old now, its frustrating because I can't get a fucking job anywhwere.
EDIT: Oh sorry, got distracted by a completely separate set of issues there:
Anyway, to answer your original question, 9/11 all in all had no real deep impact on me. The only difference its really made is made airport security a little tighter. *shrugs* I didn't know anyone who died, or people who had people the knew who died. Hell, we don't even do the moment of silence on 9/11 in school anymore.
Well things definitely got a lot tougher for my mom. Since she's Indian, all anyone sees is her skin, so it doesn't matter if she's not actually Middle Eastern or Muslim, everyone brown is lumped into the same boat. We live in Texas, mind you. So, even though I love the place to bits, we have our share of racist assholes. For instance, we got held up for hours at the Mexican border for God knows what (they never gave us a straight answer).
Overall though, life hasn't changed that much.
Overall though, life hasn't changed that much.