What (Public) Events Sadden You Althought They Didn't Directly Affect You?

In My Humble Opinion
1

And no need to state why. (Hopefully politics won’t be dragged in).

For me:

  1. September 11

  2. Munich Olympics Massacre

  3. Kent State University.
    In no particular order.

2

Princess Diana’s death.

3

The Tiananmen Square protests.

4

The Dunblane primary school shooting was a tough one for me. I just remember hearing it about it over the radio and my heart sinking.

5

I heard on the radio today a detailed account of how the Chinese government is flooding Tibet with Han Chinese people, slowly but effectively carrying out their genocide. It made me sad. Another indigenous culture disappearing under the heel of industrial society.

6

Columbine and Phil Hartman’s murder spring to mind.

7

In no particular order:

Phil Hartman’s murder

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (more than Challenger, I was too young to be as affected then.)

This current gulf oil spill

Hurrican Katrina

9/11

8

I’m confused - your thread title has ‘Sadden’ in the present tense. What public events continue to sadden me even though they happened a while ago? Or just what saddened me at the time?

9

Both space shuttle disasters, definitely.

10

Pretty much everything. The news regularly makes me cry.

11

Outside of 9-11 I can’t really think of anything.

I recall the vivid images of people falling out of the towers and one really odd image of people drinking coffee and smiling for the news helicopters as they flew by and took film of them. I guess they thought they’d get out.

12

The Columbine massacres.

The assassination of Salvador Allende, President of Chile, by the fascist regime of Augusto Pinochet, an event which also occurred on September 11th – in 1973. The event would be catastrophic for Chile.

13

9/11. It’s the only major loss of life (tens just aren’t enough) that was directly insulting to me. Everything else was either mundane in scope or didn’t really say anything about me. Thus, no emotion.

14

I think that more than anything. 9/11 really had me spooked for about 6 months, though.

15

Columbine.

Virginia Tech.

9/11.

Challenger.

There are probably more, but those jump to my mind.

16

Humans. On the other hand they bring me great joy as well. It’s all about the occasion.

17

Hmm. Just realized that humans aren’t events. I’ll rephrase: most stuff that humans do to each other. Does that count as “events”?

18

Any tragedies or wrongdoings involving children.

19

(1) The killing of John Lennon

(2) 9/11

(3) The death of Princess Diana

(4) The elimination of the Vancouver Canucks from Stanley Cup contention (this is one I’m doomed to repeat every year).
All of course in no particular order.

20

I lost two friends on 9/11, so I can’t say it didn’t “directly” affect me.

Definitely Katrina. Even now, when I think of the magnitude of the loss, it’s horrendous.

And the two Shuttle disasters.

And the airplane crash that happened at the Madrid airport in August, 2008. I was actually in that airport when it happened.