"It's our community's 9/11"

ASmallWonder · March 2014

Long story short - buildings exploded in NYC today. 2 people are dead and 22 injured - obviously extremely sad no matter how it happened. Not discounting that at all. Early information strongly indicates a gas leak. Ok so I know that's not confirmed and we may fid out it's something more sinister but I find this comment to be insulting to people to experienced 9/11:

Rep. Charles Rangel, who represents Harlem, told NBC's New York affiliate. “This is a very serious thing. It’s our community’s 9/11, even though we don’t know how it started."

Edited because I had 8 dead and it's 2. Also, insulting wasn't the word I was going for. Like you guys have now mentioned, it's insensitive.

theseaword · March 2014

Wait, NY? Wouldn't 9/11 be that community's 9/11?
And I'm not sure where his comparison of these two events stem from (but this certainly does sound traumatic).

missymo · March 2014

But how does it insult anyone? I disagree with him that the situations are similar (giving the disparate number of deaths, injures and overall horrifying damage), but it's just someone talking through grief. I just don't see the insult.

ASmallWonder · March 2014

@missymo every way I try to word it makes it seem like their situation is NBD and I don't want to imply that. But the idea of being attacked by hijacked planes where you didn't know for HOURS if it was over and thousands of people were walking in the streets, disoriented and injured because rescue people couldn't even get to them...it just seems wrong to compare this event to that event. I mean, if someone's house caught fire and they lost their family, would it fair of them to say that event was their 9/11? It seemed a dramatic stretch to me.

Helenahhandbasket · March 2014

MrsBadKat said:

Okay, but 9/11 was Harlem's 9/11.

Ryght?

It's a werid comment.

And I will add I am typing this from midtown Manhattan and not one of my co-workers has even brought this up.

ASmallWonder · March 2014

@HilarityEnsued I agree with you 100% I don't at all think he was trying to be a jerk but he stepped in it big time.

missymo · March 2014

I can't see an insult. Perhaps an incorrect comparison, but insult? Why feel insulted? To what end?

I guess I don't view disasters and horrible tragedies like this in a who had it worse, pain Olympics type of way. Especially when death is involved. No matter if a person dies with thousands of others in a terrorist event, or with 8 others in a gas explosion, it is still the worst day EVER for those that involved and those that loved them. The grief in this tragedy is no less because of how those people died or were injured. They died. They were injured.

Again, I agree with you that there are not a lot of similarities in the situation, but I'm also not on the ground there. Things could be in ruins...we know people are dead and injured. I imagine it's chaos.

theseaword · March 2014

HilarityEnsued said:
Harlem is a tight-knit community. If you've never lived in or been to NYC, it can be hard to understand, but Harlem and Ground Zero might as well be in different states. Many people don't travel that far outside their communities there.

Not that I'm trying to rationalize anything... I'm just explaining to those who are saying that "9/11 was Harlem's 9/11".

I don't necessarily agree with this, and I'm from NY. I agree some parts of Harlem are close knit (although there's diversity there too), but not that 9/11 didn't impact them.

Helenahhandbasket · March 2014

HilarityEnsued said:

Harlem is a tight-knit community. If you've never lived in or been to NYC, it can be hard to understand, but Harlem and Ground Zero might as well be in different states. Many people don't travel that far outside their communities there.

Not that I'm trying to rationalize anything... I'm just explaining to those who are saying that "9/11 was Harlem's 9/11".

Good point. I hadn't thought about that, but Harlem is quickly becoming MUCH more diverse. It's the last place in NYC proper that's marginally affordable so the hipsters are coming.

missymo · March 2014

I don't think he said it was a national tragedy, did he? I think the interpretation of his statement is up in the air. It was weird...did he mean that it was as shocking and horrifying to his community as he imagined it was when the twin towers fell? Did he mean that it looks like a war-zone disaster area with people dying and injured, like 9-11? His statement was odd and of course 9-11 was a tragedy for many more people than this one was.

But insulting? I don't see it.

EVA116 · March 2014

It was a ridiculous comment. He did not need to say something like that for people to understand what a tragedy it is.

Want a personalized experience?

"It's our community's 9/11"

Re: "It's our community's 9/11"

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Want a personalized experience?

"It's our community's 9/11"

Re: &quot;It&#039;s our community&#039;s 9/11&quot;

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Re: "It's our community's 9/11"