Pause for London

[shh!]

Asip - I am so sorry! I know that experience must have colored the lives of everyone connected to your father. How tragic and dehumanizing.

[misombra]

terrible. i'm really sorry asip. is your father still alive?

[Asip4u]

Thanks, shh!, misombra...Yea he's still alive and doing fairly well. Still gets pain in the back of the neck area from time to time but nothing too serious.

[boobaa]

I think the difference is that victims of terror are deliberately murdered, and randomly at that, as a result of governmental policies they may or may not support. Yes, plenty of other people die as victims of circumstance, but those circumstances do not necessarily have a human face. That people die of starvation is certainly tragic in its own right, but that doesn't explain or excuse boob's lack of compassion for victims of terrorism.

Mind me, but if I felt sorry for every person who dies because of another human, or even because of tricking government, then I would be dead or crazy, OR as cold as ice can be.

I just have other things to worry about. There are more awful things happening right now.

Yes, media leads our life and that is mostly the only place where we get and CAN get our information from. And the people from media tell the things that other people tell them. And so, we cannot have any idea how many lies can be out there.
Government is manipulating with us.

I just say that those explosions in London could be, or could not be the act of terrorism. Well, terrorism it may be anyway, actually, maybe even governmental terrorism as to win supporters for soon starting war in Iran.

Actually even Mr. Bush has stated that world is near the III world war. But the yankes started it, now they just want to wash their mouths clean from it.

Just remember, EVERYTHING is based on believings, and there is no fact or knowing. Same for media. people tell media what they want other people to know, and media tells it to other people. So, the common mass lives inside windowless room where daily news is reached on every morning...

And you people, are used, used because people is the power. But people is controlled by someone else.

You only try to feel sorry because you don't know. And if you would know, then you probably don't want to feel sorry for such a small thing. There are lot awful things happening every day, live with it.

[nomas]

I'm sorry too, Asip. Truly.

Shh!, This is another example of what I speak of. It doesn't have to be hunger.. it CAN be this sort of thing too. Think Sierra Leone. You ask the average american and they can tell you very little (until they google it...no, yahoo it) about the horrible things that the revolution yields. The mutilations, amputations, and heartless killing. Genocides in Rwanda. These stories didn't get the kind of attention richer nations get over smaller scale tragedies.

Still, that should be independent. If you have empathy for human life, I'm sure you have it accross the board..but it sucks that we talk about selective events that come to light because this is what's been decided will make the better story.

[misombra]

my grandfather was taken by the japanese in wwII.. (bataan death march). he rarely spoke of it at all, and was intensely traumatized. [url]http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~ehimchak/POWs.html[/url]

[shh!]

Thanks, shh!..Yes, he was one of the lucky ones. Has anyone seen that movie Harrison's Flowers?..I don't know if anyone remembers, near the end, the guy couldn't speak at all (not just because he was burnt all over) but because of what he had experienced. Well, my father barely spoke a word after he came back from the camp.

I am re-reading your posts, and am reminded of a local even that touched our lives in a much less direct, but still painful way. We have friends of the family whose children (one boy in my daughter's class, the other a close friend of my son) were victims of a hate crime shooting spree in a Jewish community center. (Maybe you heard about it around 5 years ago.) The younger boy was shot (he was only 6 or 7 at the time) while the older one witnessed it. God - it was awful. I couldn't do much more than cry for a couple of days, and they weren't even my own babies. I know I would be catatonic if they were my own kids.

[shh!]

Still, that should be independent. If you have empathy for human life, I'm sure you have it accross the board...

I absolutely agree.

[Tone]

Actually even Mr. Bush has stated that world is near the III world war.

When? And do you have anything to back this?

[shh!]

my grandfather was taken by the japanese in wwII.. (bataan death march). he rarely spoke of it at all, and was intensely traumatized. [url]http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~ehimchak/POWs.html[/url]

I just don't understand that kind of barbarity. Your poor grandfather.

[Asip4u]

boobaa, you don't even make sense..how can someone even take you seriously? I mean, you're saying you dont care because it will make you go insane or even lead to death?

Thanks, nomas...i do believe in the news picking out stories that they think are worthy of showing...i'm in no way debating that...it's more about being a human being and not so robotic like boobaa here.

misombra, that picture says it all.....i'm sorry for what your grandfather had to go through.

[indigosoul]

I agree, all you have to do is put yourself in their shoes to empathize...yet people die of tragic causes every day. This story made the news because it was a rare instance on an otherwise progressive and economically sound city. I don't recall you ever starting a thread to pause for those who die of hunger and who obviously had worse situations in their lives to begin with.

In a very loose comparison, take the cases of missing teenagers that are sensationalized in the news from month to month. People go missing everyday, but one case makes the news for it's newsworthyness: these aren't my words, but some say that the stories that are selected have to be of "rich/white/attractive" people. So it becomes the talk of the community..again the manipulation I was talking about. THEY TELL US WHAT TO TALK ABOUT and we do.

I agree completely w/ Nomas on this.

I'd like to add that while sympathy is well and good, I see very little discussion about what to DO about the problem. Awareness is a good first step, but how many of you won't bother to think about any of this after a week or so. Figure out WHY, do the opposite, and then we'll start making some inroads on how to combat hate of any form.

Tho the media reporting biases are appaling, at least it raises general awareness. What we do w/that awareness (fear, fight, change ourselves) is up to each of us.

[boobaa]

Now comes the place where everybody are going to tell stories about their grandparents...

Yea, i have such stories also. Do I have feelings now?

[nomas]

I'd like to add that while sympathy is well and good, I see very little discussion about what to DO about the problem. Awareness is a good first step, but how many of you won't bother to think about any of this after a week or so. Figure out WHY, do the opposite, and then we'll start making some inroads on how to combat hate of any form.

Tho the media reporting biases are appaling, at least it raises general awareness. What we do w/that awareness (fear, fight, change ourselves) is up to each of us.

There you go, Indi, EXCELLENT point.

This is part of the reason why I was presenting the other side. Yeah, awareness is a good first step, but I'll be the first to accept that I'm not helping matters to any degree like I could if I became pro-active. If I'm not doing any activism, I can feel all the empathy I want, but I'm not helping matter any more than Boob is, and it does the victims no good for me to feel sad than for boob to be indifferent.

Say in Aspi's case..and any others who had relatives or lived it in the flesh.. we can tell him/her directly, "I'm really sorry..it sucks what happened, it shouldn't have been and I'm sorry you were victimized", but when it's people we're separated from in any form of contact... Good vibes are all well and good, but not doing to any significant degree what we have the potential of doing to aid.

[artyemi]

I'm sorry too, Asip. Truly.

Shh!, This is another example of what I speak of. It doesn't have to be hunger.. it CAN be this sort of thing too. Think Sierra Leone. You ask the average american and they can tell you very little (until they google it...no, yahoo it) about the horrible things that the revolution yields. The mutilations, amputations, and heartless killing. Genocides in Rwanda. These stories didn't get the kind of attention richer nations get over smaller scale tragedies.

Still, that should be independent. If you have empathy for human life, I'm sure you have it accross the board..but it sucks that we talk about selective events that come to light because this is what's been decided will make the better story.

Sometimes, empathy for human life isn't that great. I don't like to watch the news. I can cry my eyes out and not even be related to anyone on it.