ersigh
Thu 9/5/02, 9:33AM
One of my friends wrote this, I wanted to share:
My Very Own 9/11 Chain Letter
First, I don't mean to trivialize the horrifying events of September 11 by writing this message. I mean no disrespect to anybody... except the media.
What I find rather ghoulish is the media's constant dwelling upon the subject in order to make a buck. It seems like I can't go a day without some talking head harping about Nine Eleven, or advertisers waving flags at me and telling me that I need their products even more "... since the events of September 11th..."
I expect this only to get worse as 9/11/02 approaches.
What, I think, we need most at this point is a sense of perspective.
The latest figures list 3,056 casualties in the three attacks that day. That's a lot of people, to be sure. If that many people joined hands, they could form a chain about three miles long. (PLEASE don't ask me how many football fields that is-- even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you.)
Meanwhile, in the year 2000, there were 15,517 murders in the US. The FBI reports that this figure rose by 3.1% in 2001, for a total of 15,998 murders that year. (The 3,056 9/11 victims, which certainly fit the definition, were not counted as murders by the FBI.)
If the past two years are any indication, this year five times more Amercians will be killed by OTHER AMERICANS, than perished on 9/11/01. What about these people? What about their families? Where's their media circus? Where are their garish logos made from the combination of video stills and mismatched fonts?
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 20,000 AIDS deaths occur every year. Forget Iraq, how fares the war on AIDS?
While AIDS is alien to many people, the flu is not. Most of us have had some form of it at least once. Guess what: 20,000 people die of the flu every year.
If the year 1999 is average, then about 29,999 Americans take their own lives each year. That's TEN times the number of people that died last September. And this happens EVERY YEAR. Why is there no national outpouring of sympathy for these poor souls?
Ready for a bigger number? The total number of people killed in highway crashes in 2001 was 42,116. Forty two thousand fatal auto collisions in that year alone! Most of these were due to carelessness and were sudden and pointless ends. But you hear little from the media of this, other than the occasional celebrity public-service announcement to not drink and drive.
The estimated number of non-automotive fatal accidents in 2001 was 51,788. Only 34 Darwin Awards were presented.
Here comes a much bigger number: 430,000 U.S. deaths are attributed to cigarrette smoking per year. It's hard to determine the culprit in the case of cigarrettes. Is it the smoker, or the corporation which encourages and sustains this habit? Who do we bomb for these atrocities? Silly me, we're doing it to *ourselves!* And since somebody's making money, it must be a good thing!
About 950,000 Americans die of cardiovascular disease each year (a fifth of this is attributable to smoking). While nobody is really to blame here (except for the individual, fast food chains, television, and society in general) this figure is presented because it is the a) leading cause of death in the US b) averages to about one every thirty seconds and c) is three hundred times larger than the 9/11 casualty.
For comparison, the population of the United States is 281,421,906 people. (2000 Census)
sources
http://www.UnitedJustice.com/stories/stats.html
http://www.indystar.com/library/factfiles/crime/national/2001/sept11/victims.html
http://www.bartleby.com/151/a33.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/cdnr/cdnr_fall0102.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/cvh/cvdaag.htm
http://www.suicidology.org
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/index_darwin2001.html
My Very Own 9/11 Chain Letter
First, I don't mean to trivialize the horrifying events of September 11 by writing this message. I mean no disrespect to anybody... except the media.
What I find rather ghoulish is the media's constant dwelling upon the subject in order to make a buck. It seems like I can't go a day without some talking head harping about Nine Eleven, or advertisers waving flags at me and telling me that I need their products even more "... since the events of September 11th..."
I expect this only to get worse as 9/11/02 approaches.
What, I think, we need most at this point is a sense of perspective.
The latest figures list 3,056 casualties in the three attacks that day. That's a lot of people, to be sure. If that many people joined hands, they could form a chain about three miles long. (PLEASE don't ask me how many football fields that is-- even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you.)
Meanwhile, in the year 2000, there were 15,517 murders in the US. The FBI reports that this figure rose by 3.1% in 2001, for a total of 15,998 murders that year. (The 3,056 9/11 victims, which certainly fit the definition, were not counted as murders by the FBI.)
If the past two years are any indication, this year five times more Amercians will be killed by OTHER AMERICANS, than perished on 9/11/01. What about these people? What about their families? Where's their media circus? Where are their garish logos made from the combination of video stills and mismatched fonts?
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 20,000 AIDS deaths occur every year. Forget Iraq, how fares the war on AIDS?
While AIDS is alien to many people, the flu is not. Most of us have had some form of it at least once. Guess what: 20,000 people die of the flu every year.
If the year 1999 is average, then about 29,999 Americans take their own lives each year. That's TEN times the number of people that died last September. And this happens EVERY YEAR. Why is there no national outpouring of sympathy for these poor souls?
Ready for a bigger number? The total number of people killed in highway crashes in 2001 was 42,116. Forty two thousand fatal auto collisions in that year alone! Most of these were due to carelessness and were sudden and pointless ends. But you hear little from the media of this, other than the occasional celebrity public-service announcement to not drink and drive.
The estimated number of non-automotive fatal accidents in 2001 was 51,788. Only 34 Darwin Awards were presented.
Here comes a much bigger number: 430,000 U.S. deaths are attributed to cigarrette smoking per year. It's hard to determine the culprit in the case of cigarrettes. Is it the smoker, or the corporation which encourages and sustains this habit? Who do we bomb for these atrocities? Silly me, we're doing it to *ourselves!* And since somebody's making money, it must be a good thing!
About 950,000 Americans die of cardiovascular disease each year (a fifth of this is attributable to smoking). While nobody is really to blame here (except for the individual, fast food chains, television, and society in general) this figure is presented because it is the a) leading cause of death in the US b) averages to about one every thirty seconds and c) is three hundred times larger than the 9/11 casualty.
For comparison, the population of the United States is 281,421,906 people. (2000 Census)
sources
http://www.UnitedJustice.com/stories/stats.html
http://www.indystar.com/library/factfiles/crime/national/2001/sept11/victims.html
http://www.bartleby.com/151/a33.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/cdnr/cdnr_fall0102.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/cvh/cvdaag.htm
http://www.suicidology.org
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/index_darwin2001.html