Originally posted by: ZeldaFreak
I was born on August 25th, 2001, so TECHNICALLY I was alive when 9/11 happened I think there's a bit of a misconception that us young folk are dumb and don't know when certain things happened or how they happened, or that we don't fully understand. Yeah, some of us are dumb, but there's tons of dumb people every generation, it's not like it's exclusive to us. I of course can't remember when it happened, but I've been told stories from my parents and some of my friends, and I've obviously watched a few documentaries and gotten a decent grasp on exactly what had happened.
I don't have the same story to tell about where I was at the time (In a crib, at my house in Texas) but what I can at least offer is that just because we didn't experience it in the same way many others did when they were alive during that time, doesn't mean my generation doesn't understand what happened. It may not have had the same impact on us since we weren't around at the time, but we do understand, and mourn the losses of all the lives lost in that event.
I certainly hope I didn't give you the wrong impression or anything...I'm not saying at all anyone or any generation is "dumb" (
trust me, I can't stand ageism at all)...all I'm saying it's just really different. I mean you yourself said that you heard stories about 9/11 from your parents and whatnot...I most definetly heard similar stories about JFK and such from my parents, my grandma and even my wife (she's a few years older than me) and really anything in history is much different when you're in that time period and see/hear about it as it's happening as opposed to only being able to read about it in the history books is very different.
For example, it's very easy for me to say in hindsight Muhammad Ali took a very courageous stance by refusing to be drafted in the late 60s when I can look at it with 50 years worth of hindsight and being able to so easily research the issue and whatnot in this modern miracle age of communication. I can clearly and easily understand his reasons...I mean who would want to go to war against some people who never did anything wrong towards you on behalf of people who called you, well, you know what. And he knew he was facing losing his title, jail time, media/public scorn (he most definetly was not made into a media darling for this at the time, not by a long shot) and
especially losing precious prime years of his boxing career. To say what he did was extremely unpopular at the time with the general public and much of the media (I've no clue off the top of my head exactly what the percentages of apporval/disapproval was for both at the time) is very much an understatement. So of course it's easy for me to say today that what he did was courageous and totally understandable given all the circumstances...but would I felt the same way had I been living in that time period? Maybe, maybe not.
Forgive me if I'm going off on a tangent (I do that sometimes) but I'm just trying to give an example of how things are different, very different for someone who was there as it happened (and can
never forget where they were and what they were doing at the time) as opposed to only knowing about it from history books and documentaries and whatnot. It's nothing about anyone or anything making the difference "better or worse than" in any sort of way...it's just...different.