[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]
I meant, I don’t see why students who don’t personally know any of the dead, or weren’t near any of the shooting, would still be wearing shirts or whatever at V Tech football games today about the event. I work in the Comcast building on the second floor. If there was a massacre of everyone on the fifth floor one day, none of whom I know, would I be wearing Comcast building T-shirts six months later or otherwise talking about the Comcast tragedy? Of course not. I don’t get why close proximity to a tragic event has people going overboard about it. I don’t get the “hey someone was shot by this water fountain, and I drank from the same fountain six weeks ago” thing either. If someone was shot at fifth and Main on Saturday, and you catch a bus there on Monday, you may momentarily think about it, but would you six months later?
Diana was “something” to many people before death- those in 9/11 were nothing to most before they died, so why are they something to you in death?
[/QUOTE]
I think I may see some daylight here. I think you mean that you didn’t know the people who died in 9/11 or 7/ etc, so that while the EVENT may have far reaching repercussions, the actual people involved (and their lives) do not. It is the opposite with Diana: while the EVENT of her death is nothing (whoever said upthread, drunk driving + no seatbelt=death is absolutely correct), since she was so well known,* her actual death has far reaching repercussions for those who admired her.* Note I do NOT say that her death has far reaching repercussions of global proportions. (although, given her celebrity-which was unprecedented-she may well have been able to influence policy for many years to come).
I think there is some talking at cross purposes here. I don’t think Bairn is saying that 9/11 was LESS important in world affairs than Diana’s death. I think he means that the people who died, while missed terribly by those who loved them, and also remembered for the tragic deaths-those falling bodies I won’t forget in a hurry–the individuals who did die in 9/11 had less influence than Diana. That does NOT make their deaths less important. It makes the “public grief” for those lost more inexplicable. We just had a thread about the discomfort felt by some for the same ceremony to be held each year to honor the dead of 9/11. It is also time for that aspect of 9/11 to move on.
But I think that Bairn is confusing something. When those here state that 9/11 is obviously more important that Diana’s death, they mean the political, military and global impact that single event had. Compared to that, Diana’s death is a mere blip. There is NO comparison.
But for those who still grieve for Diana, her death seems to be more a personal loss (whether they knew her or not). The world lost an icon that day-whether you cared for her or couldn’t stand her–and what is most important here: another has not yet risen to take her place. My money is on the poor woman who says “yes” to Prince William. Whoever that is, she will be immediately compared to Diana and the “games” will begin anew.
IMO, I think that we should allow Diana to rest in peace-this coverage is both morbid and disgusting. The concert for charity this summer most likely stirred up most of this. I admire Diana for her charity work-she not only held AIDS babies, but she touched lepers and visited the sick in many countries.
She was a complicated woman thrown into an impossible situation and role-who could measure up? She was not an intellectual by any stretch of the term, and she could be at times a media/attention whore. IOW, she was human. I think people vilify her because she was so ordinary. That’s fine, but I think also that those who truly do mourn her (I am not one), should be allowed to do so. What I don’t understand is the picking over of the corpse–one would think that those who can’t get enough of Diana would (by now) realize that it’s the same story, again and again.
Oh, and FYI, Wee Bairn–people wear the T shirts to express solidarity and a sense of community. I think humans also have some degree of superstition and it is natural to think to oneself: this is the exact corner where that woman was raped-creepy. (or whatever-just an example). Afterall, tourism is built on just such a feeling: to stand where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake; to stand on the battlefield of Gettysburg or Ardenne–places where tragedies happen do tend to evoke emotions even in those with no connection to them.
