So... the flight crashed in Des Plaines?

/fark American Airlines
//actual Chicago pronunciation: dez planes. I'm quite a stickler for French pronunciation, but I was raised pronouncing it the Chicago way....

Paris1127: So... the flight crashed in Des Plaines?


De plane crashed in Des Plaines.

johnsoninca: Paris1127: So... the flight crashed in Des Plaines?

[upload.wikimedia.org image 185x223]
De plane crashed in Des Plaines.

In an air crash, you can die on the ground or you can die in Des Plaines...

But if you read the next line of the story: "They were undeterred when American Airlines sent them a letter encouraging them to 'let it go.' ... Eventually, they won the competition and convinced American Airlines to chip in $20,000 for the memorial."

* * *

Note you may have to put the URLs back together if they fail ...

"State Sen. Dan Kotowski of Park Ridge and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston helped raise the $20,000 from American Airlines. The Des Plaines Park District erected the memorial."
See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-flight191memorial,0,37266 9.story

"The group pushed for two years to build the memorial. Finally, American Airlines agreed to foot the $21,500 cost, according to officials at the ceremony, and a location for the memorial was found inside Lake Park in Des Plaines."
See: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-memorial-to-273- plane-crash-victims-to-be-unveiled-20111015,0,3002141.story

MBrady: Devolving_Spud: The airline should probably have tried to buy the kids off with bags of peanut-free snacks, a visit from a pilot and vouchers for 10% off a companion fare baggage fee, fee to print out boarding pass at home, fee to board the plane, fee to pee, fee for an aisle seat, fee for a window seat, seatbelt fee, food fee.....

Yeah, a visit from the pilot would be great.

"Have you ever seen a grown man naked?"

FTA: Looking for a citizenship project to enter into

So am I the only one who reads this and thinks it's a bit hollow?

It's like their teachers told them let's find something to do that will make us all look really honorable and caring about our community - how about these nearly 300 people who died? Sure, none of you knew them and none of you are related but they're farking dead and you can use their memories and their loss of life to make yourselves look really good. Let's do it!


I actually remember that crash. I had no connection to the victims but I remember landing at O'Hare a few months before it happened and seeing the picture of the plane crashing on the front page of the newspaper that used to land in my front yard growing up.....well, perhaps "land in my front yard" wasn't the best expression to pick, but yeah - it wasn't good and we may as well build a memorial to all the people that died before them because you know what? Death isn't good. You should not exploit these people. Their bodies have long since been buried by their relatives.

Millions of people die every year, yet where are their memorials? Oh yeah - they're in cemeteries and visited by their relatives or they're sitting in urns on someone's mantel who actually cared about that person.

This is just buillshiat.

You want to make a memorial for any of my dead relatives? No? Why not? Are they not just as dead as the people on that plane? Did you know them?

Yes they're just as dead and no you didn't know them. Go mourn for your own and leave me and my dead relatives and friends alone.

Chilkoot Charlie: Paris1127: So... the flight crashed in Des Plaines?

I lived near there at the time, and have always thought the plane came down in Elk Grove Village. Huh.

It did come down next to/into the trailer park that was in Elk Grove.
/eyewitness to the crash

Happy Hours: So am I the only one who reads this and thinks it's a bit hollow?

Yes.

How exactly do you think these 6th graders are exploiting the dead, again?

Happy Hours: It's like their teachers told them let's find something to do that will make us all look really honorable and caring about our community - how about these nearly 300 people who died? Sure, none of you knew them and none of you are related but they're farking dead and you can use their memories and their loss of life to make yourselves look really good. Let's do it!

Oh. Well if you're that cynical about life and elementary school, I don't really know what to tell you. Not everything is a shady plan to make people "look really honorable and caring". Sometimes people just want to remember those who have died in horrible ways, in a caring fashion like a nice memorial.

adiabat: Chilkoot Charlie: Paris1127: So... the flight crashed in Des Plaines?

I lived near there at the time, and have always thought the plane came down in Elk Grove Village. Huh.

It did come down next to/into the trailer park that was in Elk Grove.
/eyewitness to the crash

That must've been utterly surreal - a real "WTF am I seeing" moment...

Happy Hours: So am I the only one who reads this and thinks it's a bit hollow?

It's like their teachers told them let's find something to do that will make us all look really honorable and caring about our community - how about these nearly 300 people who died? Sure, none of you knew them and none of you are related but they're farking dead and you can use their memories and their loss of life to make yourselves look really good. Let's do it!

Don't know if you're the only one who didn't read the article which stated that they got the idea because their assistant principal's parents were killed the crash. But thanks for trolling.

/ Front page of the Tribune the day I was born

Happy Hours: FTA: Looking for a citizenship project to enter into

So am I the only one who reads this and thinks it's a bit hollow?

It's like their teachers told them let's find something to do that will make us all look really honorable and caring about our community - how about these nearly 300 people who died? Sure, none of you knew them and none of you are related but they're farking dead and you can use their memories and their loss of life to make yourselves look really good. Let's do it!

If you had read the article, you would know that their school's assistant principal lost her parents in this crash.

shroom: Happy Hours: So am I the only one who reads this and thinks it's a bit hollow?

It's like their teachers told them let's find something to do that will make us all look really honorable and caring about our community - how about these nearly 300 people who died? Sure, none of you knew them and none of you are related but they're farking dead and you can use their memories and their loss of life to make yourselves look really good. Let's do it!

Don't know if you're the only one who didn't read the article which stated that they got the idea because their assistant principal's parents were killed the crash. But thanks for trolling.

/ Front page of the Tribune the day I was born

I admit I didn't read the whole article and missed that detail.

And I wasn't trolling, but it still rings hollow to me. I'm sure a lot of the teachers I had in school had dead parents.

We didn't build memorials to them as sad as their parent's deaths may have been. In fact, quite a few of the teachers I had in school are probably dead today but have I even bothered to visit their graves? No.

People die - often it is unexpected, but are they any less worthy of remembering them if they grew old and feeble, struggled with cancer or other diseases for the last 10 years of their lives and died in a hospital?

How many people died in your hometown today? I bet you don't know. I don't know about my town either, but even though it's not that big a quick search shows about 30 people dying in the past week or so. Most of them were old, but not all of them. At least a couple of them were younger than me.

Over the course of a year that's going to add up to quite a few people.

Think about it - if 30 people died in my town last week alone extrapolating that's roughly 1500 people a year - just in my town and this is the smallest town I've ever lived in.

Holy shiat - people are dropping like flies! Sure, the first guy listed on the obituary page was 91. I guess that's to be expected that he wouldn't have lived much longer. So no memorial for him? Why not? I have no idea who he was but he probably had children and even grandchildren. They probably cared about him. What about the 32 year old guy? Oh, well he was killed in a motorcycle accident, but it was only one guy. Why bother with a memorial for him either?

But just looking through the list I see phrases like "Our mother, our Nana", "will be greatly missed". "A loving husband, a wonderful father of three, an American patriot,", "was a shining example whose love for others brightened our days. Her tender smile, quiet strength and generosity were an inspiration to all", "He faced his death with courage, love and a sense of humor." and it just goes on and on.

Taken together these people are just a small subset of Americans who die everyday, but those that knew them probably mourned their deaths but most will not be remembered by the general public.

Personally I'd rather be remembered for who I actually was by a few close friends and relatives rather than be remembered by a lot of people as some guy who died in a tragic plane crash.