Something to think about

[highnote]

About 3000 people died in the 9/11 attacks.

About 4000 people die everyday in this country from cancer and heart disease.

[PaceAdvantage]

Are you trying to say the 9/11 attacks weren't deadly enough for you? Sorry you're not easily impressed....hope you weren't too disappointed.

[highnote]

Are you trying to say the 9/11 attacks weren't deadly enough for you?

No. That's what you think I'm saying. I'm just stating a fact.

Sorry you're not easily impressed....hope you weren't too disappointed.

Terrorism doesn't impress me. Death by heart disease and cancer doesn't impress me. But I am disappointed that people would purposefully kill other people. And I'm disappointed that people die of disease.

I was only stating a fact. I am interested in how people respond to that fact.

I'm off to work. But I'll have more to say later.

Regards,
John

[PaceAdvantage]

Your original post was ambiguous enough to invite different interpretations as to your intent....plus its an obvious emotional hot button, especially for those of us (myself) who had friends and family working in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack.

[highnote]

Your original post was ambiguous enough to invite different interpretations as to your intent....

Good. It struck me as a very significant fact that deserved more thought. I was hoping to hear more interpretations. It's a powerful statistic.

plus its an obvious emotional hot button, especially for those of us (myself) who had friends and family working in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack.

Death by cancer and heart disease are emotional hot buttons for me. My mother died of cancer when I was still in high school. My father had a heart attack and required quintuple bypass surgery. He had a stroke as a result of his surgery. He is not the same person.

I don't think either of them deserve more or less emotional energy than the others.

I was so struck by these facts that I wanted to examine them more closely. I am reminded that whatever you focus on is what you feel. Think about the 9/11 attacks. The media had a field day. Think about a newspaper headline you see when you walk by a newstand -- if the headline says beautiful weather tomorrow you keep on walking. If it says killer hurricane approaching - you might buy the paper. Bad news sells.

Every single day more people die of heart disease and cancer than in 9/11, but people seem more afraid of terrorism than of heart disease or cancer. Why? Because they are more focused on terrorism than heart disease or cancer because it is thrown in our face by the media.

People who die of heart disease and cancer have family, friends, parents, lovers, co-workers, etc. -- just like the people who perished in 9/11. Is losing a loved one on 9/11 worse than losing a loved one from cancer or heart disease? I can't answer that for everyone, but for myself, I can tell you that losing a mother to cancer at a young age was not easy.

However, what I found out was that when you face death and when you embrace death, you live life to its fullest.

Think about it... when someone you love is dying, isn't that the time you put aside any animosities you might have toward that person and tell them how much you love them and how much you're going to miss them? If you knew you only had 6 months to live, wouldn't you enjoy every moment?

The point is, you should do that now. We're all going to die eventually (unless cryogenics actually works :D ) and we're far more likely to die of heart disease or cancer than a terrorist attack -- pre or post 9/11.

Losing someone to the 9/11 attacks is a tragedy. So is losing someone to cancer or heart disease. I don't think losing someone in 9/11 is worse than losing someone by another means of death -- a car crash, drowning, war, etc.

My belief is that this country spends (spent?) too much time focusing on terrorism when there is so much other tragedy in the world. The terrorists accomplished their mission -- to make people feel afraid. Look what we've endured and all the things we've changed because of the terrorist attacks. Look at the money that was spent and how much our lives have been disrupted. Now it's the fear of another terrorist attack happening again that has crippled and paralyzed so many people. I do my best not to think about it. If it happens, it happens. I've got a life to live. As I said, I'm more likely to die of a heart attack. How many of us eat right, exercise and do other things to prevent death by heart attack, stroke or cancer. The recent tsunami was much worse than 9/11 in terms of number of dead. 9/11 got a lot more focus in the media. It would take fifty 9/11's to equal the death toll from the recent tsunami.

Deaths by heart disease and cancer are equivalent in numbers to having one 9/11 every single day. In other words, there is a 9/11 every single day in this country. People should spend more time thinking about how they are going to live life to its fullest rather than think about dying in a terrorist attack.

So all of this is why I was struck by the statement that 4000 people die every day of heart disease and cancer and 3000 died in 9/11. I was not trying to say that one is worse than the other. They are both tragedies. I do think that people tend to focus more on 9/11 than on other types of death due to the media attention.

Notice too that my statement did not try to minimize 9/11. I didn't say fewer people died in 9/11 than die every day of cancer and heart disease -- although that is a fact. I just stated the fact in numbers of deaths. I am just struck by the enormity of death from cancer and heart disease -- 1.5 million per year. Yet, 9/11 gets a lot more focus in the media. Even tsunami that kills 200,000 gets more media focus than cancer and heart disease deaths.

I guess what occured to me is that what you focus on becomes what you feel. You certainly can't go around focusing on the pain of the world -- children dying of starvation, people being murdered everyday, people killed in wars, abductions, rapes, etc. etc. etc.. If you focused on all that you'd die from all the pain.

I think a lot of fear was instilled in people in this country because of the 9/11 attacks. Personally, I am more afraid of dying of cancer or heart disease than terrorism. That is why I take relatively good care of myself and I am not afraid to fly or work in tall buildings in NYC. I'll travel just about anywhere. When my time is up, at least I know I lived life to its fullest.

Well, I'm rambling. This post was not meant to minimize 9/11. If anything it was meant to help anyone who has ever lost someone they love. It was meant to help and remind people to live fuller, richer lives by living every moment to it's fullest. As the saying goes -- Carpe Diem.

John

[Dave Schwartz]

My belief is that this country spends (spent?) too much time focusing on terrorism when there is so much other tragedy in the world.

John,

I think the issue is not that people die... hey, nobody is going to get out of this life alive anyway... the issue is how they die.

In the case of a terorist attack, people had their lives taken away from them prematurely by others.

This is simply not the case with cancer, heart disease, etc.

In the case of heart disease and cancer, there is certainly an argument to be made that in many cases we do that to ourselves.

Personally, I am not generally outraged about someone getting cancer - unless the cancer is the result of (say) toxic waste or some other polution.

For example, if a company chooses to illegally dump toxic waste because they save (or make) money by doing so, then they are (indirectly) choosing to endanger the lives of others for profit. That is reprehensible and a case can certainly be built for outrage.


Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[highnote]

John,

I think the issue is not that people die... hey, nobody is going to get out of this life alive anyway... the issue is how they die.

In the case of a terorist attack, people had their lives taken away from them prematurely by others.

This is simply not the case with cancer, heart disease, etc.

In the case of heart disease and cancer, there is certainly an argument to be made that in many cases we do that to ourselves.

Personally, I am not generally outraged about someone getting cancer - unless the cancer is the result of (say) toxic waste or some other polution.

For example, if a company chooses to illegally dump toxic waste because they save (or make) money by doing so, then they are (indirectly) choosing to endanger the lives of others for profit. That is reprehensible and a case can certainly be built for outrage.


Regards,
Dave Schwartz

David,
I agree with you. I agree with PA. I think we should be outraged by acts of terrorism. We should be outraged that drunk drivers kill people. The list goes on.

Once I started thinking about the statistic that more people die everyday of heart disease and cancer than in the 9/11 terrorists attacks and that the media and the home viewers spend more time thinking/talking about 9/11 than disease it struck me as ironic.

It may just be human nature. I'm not saying it's wrong. If you're an individual who is deeply disturbed by terrorism (and I'm not pointing fingers) I'm saying it might be better to spend more time focusing on things other than terrorism because you'll feel a whole lot better.

That's all. I didn't intend to be controversial or belittle 9/11. There are only so many hours in a lifetime. Maybe it's better to spend more time thinking about health issues that are more likely to affect the average U.S. citizen. Debating terrorism has its place. Debating disease has its place. A lot more people die of disease than terrorism. Dying at the hands of terrorists is more of an outrage than dying of natural causes. It's up to each individual to decide where to spend their time.

Losing someone to a heart attack is no easier than losing someone to a terrorist attack -- in my opinion. I've only lost people to disease and not to terrorist attacks, so I can't say which is easier.

So anyway. I don't know if there was any point I was trying to debate. I just thought it was an interesting statistic. I'm a numbers guy -- what can I say.

John