# What (Public) Events Sadden You Althought They Didn't Directly Affect You? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914 "2010-07-16T14:07:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cgg419](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cgg419/32/2847_2.png) [@cgg419](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cgg419)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/41 "2010-07-20T14:35:18Z")
I’m just going to add something no one has mentioned yet [Dimebag Darrell Abbott](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimebag_Darrell#Death) ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/42 "2010-07-20T14:54:25Z")
Things that I can remember bringing a spontaneous tear to my eye seeing them on TV: [The Boxing Day Tsunami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami) (I can’t believe no one has mentioned it yet, it killed 230,000! Maybe it’s more in the minds of Europeans as so many of us take ‘winter sun’ holidays in that part of the world). Diana’s death, which surprised me, but boy, that funeral was emotional. 9/11, just so shocking. The earliest one I remember making me cry was the [Hillsborough Disaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_Disaster), as I watched it unfold on the screen in front of me. I have to say, Michael Jackson’s death was really nothing to me. He just seemed like another pop star on borrowed time anyway. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/43 "2010-07-20T15:08:31Z")
I have to add: the Ecole Polytechnique massacre. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/44 "2010-07-20T15:12:13Z")
6 PM at the RSL club. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/45 "2010-07-20T15:44:39Z")
In chronological order: Challenger Hungerford Hillsborough Lockerbie Dunblane The Bam earthquake 9/11 Shock and Awe The Tsunami ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/46 "2010-07-20T16:12:34Z")
JFK assassination RJK assassination Munich Olympics Kent State Various genocides/ethnic cleansing (Sudan, Rwanda, etc.) Christmas Tsunami Death of Diana Ted Williams corpse fiasco Oklahoma City Challenger Columbia 9/11 Start of Iraq War Dan Rather’s firing Moving of Jets and Nordiques Demolition of Tiger Stadium Demolition of Yankee Stadium Death of Ernie Harwell ---
**Author:** ![Novalyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@Novalyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novalyne)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/47 "2010-07-20T16:30:26Z")
JFK, Jr’s death. Although he was a decade older than me, he felt like my generation’s Kennedy. When he died, it felt like the end of an era, somehow. 2004 Tsunami Space Shuttle’s Challenger and Columbia – saw the Challenger explosion in school, was living in Texas where Columbia broke up Shock and Awe – I was watching on TV in a waiting room, people were cheering and that upset me almost as much as what I was seeing on TV OKC bombing Princess Di’s death 9/11 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/48 "2010-07-20T16:47:17Z")
some events didn’t have direct effects because you weren’t in the event but might have indirect effects. 9/11 has changed a lot of government behavior, policies and actions that will affect all in the USA for decades. i’ve heard in debates that the OJ acquittal set race relations back a decade. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/49 "2010-07-30T05:43:01Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > 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. I don’t understand. How are Han Chinese being forced into Tibet, and how is it their genocide? * * * In retrospect, Charles and Diana’s wedding. How could anyone have predicted the way the whole thing played out? Also in retrospect, the murder of [Selena](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena). And [that whole mess back in 1992](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots) saddened me quite a lot at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/50 "2010-07-30T12:00:02Z")
Both space shuttle explosions. (My school was watching the Challenger launch on television. I was the first person to tell my mother about it.) Princess Diana’s death. This is especially odd because I really didn’t care about her while she was alive, but after the car crash I was fascinated. 9/11 The Gulf Oil spill. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/51 "2010-07-30T12:41:02Z")
The Omagh Bombing 9/11 The Death of Ronnie Drew The Iraq Invasion ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2010, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914/52 "2010-07-30T12:49:27Z")
The death of Dale Earnhardt. All lot of other things such a 9/11 and the space shuttle disaster made me sad, Dale’s death was like a kick with a steel toed boot to the stomach. What makes me even sadder are a handful of companies that are still trying to make a buck off his name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-public-events-sadden-you-althought-they-didnt-directly-affect-you/546914.md?page=2)