Be Thoughtful and Not Speak Ignorantly...

Today's blog originates from a conversation that began over poker last night. Let me begin by stating that 9.11 coverage by the media is a bit excessive considering the event happened 5 years ago in my personal opinion. However, I was terribly disturbed by the comments that followed the questions one of the players posed, What do you think about all this 9.11 coverage?... This young lady proceeded to say that she thought

1) it was media hype because it is an election year

2a)that she heard some child (and a may not quote this verbatim)...that they would be scared for life and would never heal

2b)that this child and others need to "get over it.. because it happened 5 years ago

The table conversation proceeded to discuss that acts like those of 9.11 occur in other countries all the time and American's should move on.

Now that I have had a night to marinate I would like to address each of these statements 1) every year is an election year for something... if you are referring to presidential... that would be next year ...if referring to legislative branch elections ...I think commonly we are coaxed by the media and politicians to link the events of 9.11 to the current war in Iraq... not to confirm or deny that one event led to the other... but I must say that I understand this point to a degree

2) it may have happened 5 years ago and it may occur in foreign nations ...all the time... but its frequency or location is irrelevant when dealing with the individuals that were/are affected nor does it make it right. If it was one or a few of their family members, a group of their friends or loved taken from them how would they feel? Would their opinions remain the same?

I do believe that the excess media coverage could be a partially harmful to the healing process if on practically every channel and with each flip of the daily paper from dawn to dusk that is all you read or hear...then yes it maybe dwelling a tad much on a past eventÂ…instead I think we have to be able to help individuals cope instead of criticizing their reactions (as long as they are not harmful to themselves or others) and if we are not going to do anything to help them... remain quiet...but EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion...The thing is you do not know what it takes for each individual to heal

Although these things may happen daily in other countriesÂ… be it right or wrong ... good or bad the US is commonly seen as a pattern of how to handle situations and formulate processes...therefore when a statement is made like "get over it, it happens elsewhere often"... annoyed me because maybe just maybe they are looking at the United States to formulate the proper recipe... or maybe not.. just a tcondescendinge open.. not so condesending

It is my personal thought that commonly humans lead/led a sheltered life, and it is my desire for all humans to be able to at least see outside of their immediate surrounds to see how others live, work, believe etc. I am not asking people to change necessarily, instead to first be respectful and open to the thoughts and beliefs of others... to be thoughtful and not speak ignorantly.

God Bless the World