Thursday, July 24, 2008

geography book

every once and a while i take a peek at some of my old college books. tonight i picked up "The Geography Coloring Book" [yes, my college teacher had us work from a coloring book, and do the coloring...eh, i enjoyed it]. i went to the United States section and read about Pennsylvania, then moved on to New York.


image from amazon.com

this is what New York's blurb had to say:

"The Empire State Building, built in 1931, was again New York City's tallest structure (1,250 ft) when the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed in 2001 by airliners hijacked by terrorists."


ok, so, i know this is "what happened" and all, but does this statement bother anyone else? maybe it's because it's the first time i've read it out of a "history" book...maybe because it seems so blunt and unfeeling...just a fact, not an awful event that i can remember [what do i remember? oh, that's right, our high school teachers turning off the TV's because our principal "didn't want us" to see it. i don't think to this day i've ever seen any more than 10 seconds of the event]. or maybe i'm bothered because some people don't believe that's what happened or because i feel that "they" have no right to write about this history that's still so fresh. maybe because these "terrorists" are still a "threat" to us, or maybe because we're still fighting "them" 7 years later. or maybe it's because "terrorist" has begun, to some people, to mean anyone of Mid-Eastern enthinicity...



i used way too many quotation marks for a post about our nation's history.
i'm not sure what i really wanted to say with this post.
maybe i just want to know if reading that rubbed anyone else the wrong way...

2 comments:

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

It doesn't bother me that it was talked about - I think history should be updated as soon as possible to keep things accurate. The only thing that is a bit interesting is the phraseology

"by airliners hijacked by terrorists" instead of
"by terrorists who hijacked US airplanes".

Keep in mind history books have to sort of be unemotional.

It is kind of raw. I've seen a lot more than 10 seconds of footage... you can find it online anywhere i"m sure.

Oh my Josh! said... Best Blogger Tips

anyone have any loose change lying around?