American Tragidies That Affected You Personally

[JackPeyton]

i read People magazine about what happend at VT and started crying. Me and my mother started talking about it i told her something i had never told her before. I was in the 6th grade when Columbine happend and it effected me. i just kinda brudhed it off til i went to highschool and there was a minor riot. i was terrafied to go to school because of what had happend 2 years before at columbine. i actually switched from school to indie studies for the rest of high school. she was suprised and couldnt belive i never opend up about that.

she in turn told me about JFK and how she members all that going down when she was little an how it made her aware of things that cappen in the world and because of that she feels it made her become a stronger person and more aware of everything. she told me it is okay to be affected by things and to be changed by them and of course to be scared sometimes because bad things like that do happen.

anyways, anyone else have any stories to share about things like this? i respect u all here at son so much and would love to read/hear about your stories as well.

i know 9/11 must have done things to many people as well.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

911. My mother and father were both long term employees of the Port. My father actually, still works for them now. He is now in Manhattan. My mom worked on the 90 something floor of the North tower for 19 years. My grandmother got sick in 1999 and my mother resigned, to take care of her. My Grandmother passed away, and my mom made the decision not to go back. My dad had a meeting at the South Tower. He is Jim Vanderburg. At that time, he was Manager of Bathgate Industrial park. His meeting was at 8:30. Being how he is, he had no intention on being anywhere at 8:30, so he calls up the contractors and tells them to meet his at Red Lobster at 9. He told them they would eat breakfast (Who knew? Red Lobster? ), and then would head in at 10. Thank God he did that. I have grown up around guys and ladies that have passes away. I went to Ground Zero to assist in the efforts. I did about 6 funerals. That is all I could take. I also watched Bush and Guiliani "who hah", while the efforts were going on, but this isn't about Politics.

[JackPeyton]

wow, thats amazing. im glad both were okay.

and sidenote- the only time ill ever eat breakfast (well.. its not breakfast so i guess eats before noon...)is at red lopster. nothing is better than lobster and cab legs in the am!!

[Q Steph]

That's intense.

Well, when I was 12, it turns out that the FBI was spying on me and my family inadvertently. A very close friend of our was under surveillance for fixing the books of her business and killing her lover. Her son in law was wearing a wire for the Feds and gathering info for the gov't. The guy even tried to run the daughter down.

The lady, who I always found so lovely, was arrested. She died on death row and her family was just torn apart.

[Keith]

Just about every major American Tragedy in my lifetime has had an affect one me. The first one that comes to mind is the Oklahoma City Bombings. I can't comprehend it at all.

Columbine was another WTF moment.

Virginia Tech was another story. It was still WTF, but I'd never started crying at talking about it amongst reporters on CNN (or other broadcasts). I think because it was on a college campus, I realized for the first time that I'm not above or below the impact.

I was already screwed up when Columbine happened, so I doubt it made me worse, but I don't know. It didn't affect me like VT did. Not from what I can tell anyway.

[Q Steph]

When New York City had their blackout a few years ago, we got trapped in a near riot. My mom started having a panic attack in the middle of the street.

[Tishy]

Wow Jay, that is intense.

All of the tragedies in the last twenty years have affected me big time, I am a really sensitive person. Two of my very good friends were late to work on 9/11 and missed the PATH. They would have been in the WTC at 8:30. Instead, they watched the planes fly into the towers from Jersey City.

The one that really hit home to me was in 1986, the Challenger explosion. I was in sixth grade and the teacher in space was Christa McAulliffe, who taught in my school district. My sister at one time had her as a teacher. One of the girls in my class babysat her kids and was done in Fl. for the liftoff. That year, everything we did was centered around space. We even built a replica of the Challenger and "lived" in it for a week, seven of us at a time.

The day of the explosion, all of us were waiting anxiously and wanted to see if we could spot our classmate in the crowd (we didn't). The explosion happened and the teacher ran out of the room. We, being 11 and 12, didn't quite comprehend what had happened. We watched as the media swarmed the school next door to us where Christa had once taught at. We had to sit with out heads down for the rest of the day or until a parent came to get us. My mother met me and my sister at home and she explained exactly what happened. And because our classmate was down there, we were never allowed to talk about it at school or we would face being suspended.

[Sweet_VeeVee24]

It affects me in the way at how people have changed over the years.....and how folks can turn at a drop of a dime; how it could all be over something so minor that escalates into something noone could ever expect/see coming. Sometimes I find myself scared to even make eye contact with people, and with each tragedy, my guard goes up out of that fear.