A reader writes: "Funny, I
A reader writes:
"Funny, I had written a note to Lileks saying I agreed that a lot of people in this country are too quick to expect everyone to have gotten over it [...] But now I agree with you, too. I think all of this hair-tearing is really an attempt to FEEL something, because they don't FEEL that they are FEELING enough about it.
And I want to shout at them, Guys, it's NOT something to be jealous of! It's not COOL to be a victim's family. It's awful, more awful than any of us can imagine, even those of us who were close enough to feel personal danger from the thing and to have post-traumatic symptoms, and the whole shebang.
There's an onion layer, and people who lost loved ones are in the inner layer, or maybe the rescue workers are in the inner layer, whatever, and people like you and [your coworkers] are in the next layer, and then people like me who saw it and had someone down there we were terrified for, and then those further uptown, and so on. It's not status; it's nightmare, it's trauma. I don't understand these histrionics.
Everybody just chill, it's not a hysteria contest, where everyone has to pretend to be the most noble by showing that they have the very most compassion about it. It sucks. It's death, mass murder, and these are not things to be posed for, or jockeyed into position. That's what pisses me off about all the movie stars being interviewed so they can get points for emoting. I know people are sick and get a thrill out of looking at accidents on the road, but this is way beyond the poor taste exhibited in that oddball human quirk."
