Dignity

If you read my post from beginning to the end I did bring up that UK people will have a different view on this because of the IRA bombings that UK people have lived with. People in the US on the other hand will greave for other things. I for one greave because the fact that I have two little girls that has to live in a time when just taking a train can make you a political target. In the US they have not been saying a matter of when, they have just been saying they will try and we are going to try and stop them, help us stop them. Maybe the real thing here is people of UK are a little more stiff upper lip and more reasonable then people in the US.

This is exactly what annoys us Brits so much. We were at work today and we saw some damn Yanks website called "London is hurting" which is about channeling positive energy to the UK or some rubbish. What a load of tosh. There were hundreds of comments on that site, from Brits, rubbishing it.

This is what's sick, the great American obsession with obsessing, making everything into entertainment. You say this is an event you're going to study in your schools. Over my dead body you will. Leave these people alone. One day a few small bombs went off in My capital city and some people died. End of story and let's bury it. The first american that tries to 'honour' this is sick.

We've had scores of bombs go off from the IRA in our history, you think we dance around and make a day of it revelling in the day so and so died? Gee, let the dead rest in peace.

Anyone remember who else died that week?

I work in News and was suprised we managed a whole 10 seconds on them crammed between the Dianna memorial packages.

Siggy.

BTW thats sarcasm.. I was fucking disgusted and was thinking of quitting..

Think back... name that name...

Yeah you know what else was sick? The same time Diana died Mother Teresa died, but because Diana is better frenzy fuel she got all the press, and Mother Teresa died without a whisper. That's sick, it shows that it's want for readership and attention and front page space that drives this thing.

Absolutely was just posting about that too

I think a lot of it had to do with who they were and where they came from.

Diana was a living fairy tale, of sorts. She was introduced to the general public as a beautiful, shy young girl who was thrust into the spotlight and the routine of the royal family - the most visible and recognizable of all royal families. As she came into her own, post divorce, many people began to see a much more altruistic side of her - though she pales in that department when compared to Mother Theresa.

Diana's entire existance after she wed Charles was beamed to us over the tele - while Mother Theresa performed her magic in a much more subdued way. I guess the paparazzi didn't think she'd sell as many papers/magazines as Diana.

But, that's just my $.02 on it. Your mileage may vary.

What I do know is that week we lost two great public figures who changed the lives of many.

I think Mother Teresa would have been pleased. She was more about the work she wanted to do and not about getting praise or acclaim.

It does, however, speak volumes about the media, and society in general.

The dead, being dead, after all, little care about the foolishness we get up to after they are gone. Aside from that, you do have a point; I am baffled by the increasingly common, tasteless and revolting practise of people buying flowers, candles and Linden bears to create unusually vulgar roadside altars to victims of fate whom they often never even knew whilst alive. I think it must be because so many people do not go to church or to funerals any more. On the other hand, honour is never diminished by being shared, so don't feel that you have to hog the victims. I have a feeling that there will be more than enough to share in plenty before we know it.

If you did watch the coverage of Mother Teresa's funeral, you might have noted that the streets were empty; she was hated and seen as an evil influence by many in India.

The choice of coverage was based on the 'if it bleeds it leads' principle...

Car Wreck in Paris vs Old Lady Dies..

Not on the merits of either person.

Siggy.

Mother Theresa's death wasn't lost on people. The loss of the two of them so close together . . .

And I agree with April.

If this is all just about "Americans acting badly" again, then, well, bye.

coco

I kind of find it silly, in my opinion, to blame the media. The media gives people what they want most of the time.

There have been TV shows I've enjoyed that were educational and thoughtful and well done that were cancelled because there wasn't enough "fluff". There are good well done movies that flop at the box office. When I found out one day that Baywatch was the no. 1 watched TV show in the world, I realized things just weren't right.

As for why people mourn people they don't know? I kind of think it's because they hope when they pass, someone would do the same. Maybe there is a global consciousness and people are trying to tap into it. I just read an interesting comment in an article on CNN by someone who was on one of the trains that exploded:

"It has been a great comfort to hear message of support from the people of New York and Madrid. There is a strange sense of international solidarity which is a great help. Last night I walked 4 miles across London thinking of the images of New Yorkers walking away from the twin towers - because there was nothing else they could do.

So while I understand how you feel in this matter, I can only speak for myself and not the rest of Americans. And I suppose you (the original poster) are speaking for yourself and not all of London.

But is that what the News should be? Should it be what ppl want, or what is happening?

As a member of the media I can tell you what it's about.... money.. pure and simple.

I give you what you wish to see, in return I get higher numbers and sell my advertising for more money..

So in the bigger picture, like I said - it speaks volumes about the media and society in general..

Siggy.

What? Heat in the kitchen too much for ya?

You must admit, Cocoanut, we Americans do behave badly an awful lot. Owning up to it, when deserved, is appropriate.

Well, Juro, asking us not to teach about this event in history books, and not to "mourn" the victims, etc. - and to suggest there is something wrong with us for doing so - well, that goes too far, imo.

coco

P.S. We don't behave any worse than anyone else. And we do a great deal of good. So I'm not particularly receptive to the idea that there is even something wrong with offering our condolences and feeling sorrow for what happened. Next, we'll be expected to apologize for breathing. To heck with it.

Juro is a good example of why America is alright, it's a mixed bunch. Some people do act weird, obsess over stuff, fake mourn, but some americans think, are intelligent, have a good world view of events, some americans walk on the moon, and some go on Jerry Springer

I think Juro has a good handle on things that he can step back and take an analytical look at his nation.

I think I owe it to a lot of Americans to say what is significant here is what was NOT said on this thread. Some Americans flocked to defend hysteria and fake mourning, but dozens and dozens more sidestepped the thread and got on with their lives. That's what is significant, but which was not said.

I didn't see anyone defending hysteria and fake mourning. I personally was avoiding the thread because you were being so arrogant, insulting, and angering, that I did not want to risk getting upset while trying to type out my feelings. Especially when, frankly, what you think about how I feel on this issue is not important to me.

I am not alone in England in being frankly baffled as to why what happened in the UK underground affects you so much more than anyone over here. They hit our country. Why are you so troubled? I begin to think maybe I read it wrong, maybe they bombed america again... Gee whiz, this was an English problem, why not let the English handle it.

I hope the next calamity or whatever is one outside of the UK cause your 'grief' which is larger than that of the people sat next to the bomb is frankly kind of creepy...

Ok you had me...had me...had me...then lost me on the home run.

As Moopf has said a lot earlier in this thread, the overwhelming amount of information that runs all day on TV all over the world, means that people are beginning to identify with other people, not just their countrymen. I felt that I was as shocked to see the events in New York 9/11 as I would have been if I'd lived in Manhattan. I felt for a while that those events meant that terrorism could hit any of us anywhere. Who hasn't been to New York, or known members of their family who did.

As for the bombings last week, a friend and colleague of my sister's was in the Kings Cross train and he has most emphatically NOT gone back to work and carried on. He is still shaking. That's not wrong or right, that's his reaction to it.

People can be intrusive and people can be insensitive, and people can be attention seeking and people can be empathetic and people can be completely over the top. That's people; they're all different.

It is the same difference that will make one person turn their face to the wall when they lose the ability to walk, and another climb mount everest on artificial legs. You can't make people be what they are not. Some will dust themselves off, others will take early retirement to avoid travelling on the tube again.

Being judgemental and disapproving isn't going to help any more than excessive grieving.

If the reaction to events like these means that people identify with people, no matter what their colour, race, nationality or religion, then I am all for it. Edited to be clear: OF COURSE I am not saying I am for bombings...I am for sympathetic and thoughtful reactions, identifying with the victims. The sooner we lose our chauvinism and patriotism and value people no matter where they are, the better our world will be for it.
Cali

Will the fact the bombs damaged a bit of the underground bring the UK and the USA together? Hmm. That doesn't convince me. And mass mourning that is forced and not really real, that doesn't convince me either, just sounds creepy.

Should peoples of the world value each other? Yes. Is that what is coming out of the bombs in London? Not really. No more, no less.

And you say you have a friend who is traumatised by being involved in the bomb blasts. Some people inevitably saw people decapitated and worse. It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't nice. Those people will find the UK has a well practiced support structure in place for them; the NHS will put them in touch with councellors and they'll have their friends and family. Part of moving on is aiding the casualties. Also where are the police today? Drowning in tears? No they're raiding houses across the UK. Things move on, and now we have some murderers to catch, so that is the priority across this country now.

Here is how the people of London feel, you know, the REAL victims in all this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4671579.stm

Incidentally, don't tell me how the people of London feel. I LIVE in London. I was in the square where the bus bomb went off with my son on the day before the bombings.
Cali