A Small Rant

Okay, so I know I’m Canadian and stuff, but there’re a few things that have REALLY been bugging me today. This isn’t entirely about Fantage, but I’m posting it here because some people need to see it. If you’re sick of posts about what day it is, don’t read this one.

Also, I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep last night, so I might sound a little incoherent and/or bitchy. Sorry about that.

How do I even begin? We all know what 9/11 is, even though most people on here have now been born after it happened. I’m not going to go into the details of what happened, but it was a huge tragedy and started a whole series of wars and conflicts, along with ushering in a LOT of anti-terrorism stuff. (If I remember correctly, there have been several attempts in the US and in Canada to restrict Internet access, track citizens, things like that, but this isn’t a post about Edward Snowden.)

Anyway, despite what one of my apps seems to think, 9/11 was huge. Now, in the aftermath of any tragedy, even over a decade later, there are respectful and disrespectful ways to reflect on it. And from what I’ve seen on my WP Reader, there are a lot of people doing the latter.

I’m not going to say who wrote this or what blog it was on, but I saw a post saying Fantage should do something for 9/11. No, no, and no again. First of all, having an EVENT, even one of the events like Once Upon a Time, for something like this would be incredibly disrespectful. You do not take something this tragic and turn it into a way to get money. It’s like going to a funeral and having someone come out of nowhere and set up a shop right next to the grave. Second of all, if they didn’t have an event, how do you even think they’d do anything? Put up a sign at Downtown saying something about 9/11? What could they even say that wouldn’t upset someone somehow? Honestly, if anything, I could see them putting in something small on their blog or FB, but I really, really don’t think Fantage likes to post about anything that doesn’t have to do with their site on their social media.

Also, there are people who don’t like hearing about the tragedy. Someone whose blog I read (not on FTWP) said they wouldn’t come online for the rest of the day because of it. There are people who see things related to 9/11 and immediately think of friends or family who died as a result. (By the way, it’s not just the people on the planes who died. There were people in and around the Twin Towers who were killed or seriously injured from the crash.) I’m lucky enough to be mostly unaffected by all of this, but there are people who absolutely do not want to see anything about 9/11. And even if they weren’t personally related to one or more people on those planes, there’re a lot of schools who describe the events extensively. Seeing endless posts about the same thing someone just spent the day reflecting on can upset that person.

TL;DR: If someone doesn’t post something about 9/11, they have their own reasons to do that, and it really isn’t your place to question them.

Unlike on my other posts, I’m not going to encourage anyone to comment unless they feel they can do so somewhat respectfully.