Real Life/Tear Jerker: Difference between revisions

* '''9/11/2001.'''

** ''"I look out my windows, and the Twin Towers are gone. Instead, I can now see the Statue of Liberty. '''And you can't beat that."'''''

** David Letterman's similar reaction the first night the ''[[Late Show With David Letterman]]'' after the attacks, with him trying to rationalize the way the terrorists were thinking:

** Conan O'Brien's post 9/11 monologue. He never cried or even got choked up, but there were several moments when he paused to take a deep breath and it was obvious that he was trying not to lose it. He bluntly stated that he had no idea how they were going to go back to doing shows the way they used and then got very personal and discussed his Catholic upbringing and mentioned that he so desperately needed help to deal with the horror of what had happened that he did something he hadn't done in 8 years--went to church and prayed. He described sitting in St. Patrick's Cathedral and suddenly realizing that although the towers had been knocked down, that ''this'' beautiful building was still standing and there was still a lot of beauty in the world. It was during this speech that he first urged his young viewers to shun cynicism. Seven years later, on June 13, 2008, he simply walked onto the stage without any music or intro and informed his audience that he had just learned of the death of his friend Tim Russert. After talking about him for several minutes, he played several clips from Russert's appearances on the show.

** The Onion, not long after: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28148.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHLj97yYL8A This video.] A large group of New Yorkers, including a great-grandfather and a young woman who both picked up body parts in the aftermath of 9/11, argue about the attacks. Suddenly, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHLj97yYL8A#t=5m04s this happens].

** Several years after 9/11, a US Airforce Pilot summed up the events of ''United Flight 93'' with the following words:

** [http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/10/delivered-hugging-towers.html This] [http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/05/hugging-towers.html drawing]. 9/11 seen by the eyes of a child: the Two Towers hugging each other while crying...

* ''La Dictadura'' or ''el proceso''(Spanish for "The Dictatorship" and "The Process", as in "National Reorganization Process"). Those words are synonym of the cruelest period of it history. It was the last military dictatorship to take over the country between the years of 1976 and 1983, and by far the bloodiest. Not only by the fact that '''30.000 people disappeared''' to not be found ever, but for the intervention of political activite, the smashing of political activities, and the infamous Falkland's War where other 600 young soldiers died. The result of the general repression was huge impact in Argentinian culture.

** ''La Noche de los Lápices'' (The Night of the Pencils). One September 16th of 1976 a group of students of La Plata marched for better education. And they never return. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y41L4oZfWrg they made a movie out of it]

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggToRVjBWm8 This song by Charly García]. It is in Spanish, but the lyrics go like these:

the person you love may disappear. }}

* About recognizing the [[wikipedia:2008 Mumbai attacks|2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai]]. Particularly tearjerking because people were killed at multiple locations all over the city- including places, like the city's biggest railway station. Among the places that went under attack were the aforesaid station, a hospital, the local Chabad outreach centre, a cafe and two hotels- [[wikipedia:Taj Mahal Palace %26 Tower|one of which is one of the most iconic buildings in India]]. It was made worse by the fact that the siege in the hotels and the outreach centre went on for ''three days''. And made worse still by bungling politicians and an irresponsible media, who relayed possible locations of hostages on live TV- making it easier for the terrorists' handlers to figure out where they were and tell the gunmen to go after them.

* The Olympic Games are always good for some tear-inducing moments.

** [[wikipedia:Munich massacre|The 1972 Munich Massacre.]] ABC sportcaster Jim McKay's harrowing and iconic announcement to the tragedy sums it up very well:

** What makes the Munich tragedy so much worse is that the organizers had gone out of their way to make this the antithesis of the "Nazi" Games in '36. These were the [[Sugar Wiki]] Games, "The Games of ''Peace And Joy''". The opening ceremonies were breathtaking, graceful, almost fairytale in color and feel. Lighthearted pop tunes instead of martial airs were played for the Parade of Athletes, and the Germans wore bright pastels. For the first time, the Olympic Flag was brought in by the athletes themselves instead of soldiers. Thousands of garlanded children -- ''Blumenkinder'' -- danced as a children's choir sang Karl Orff's setting of the medieval tune "Sumer Is Icumen In", and the Flame was brought in by a group of runners representing the continents and islands of the world. And at the closing ceremonies, in spite of everything, they still raised artist Otto Piene's installation, the Flying Rainbow...

** During the 2004 Olympic Games opening parade, when the country of Iraq was announced. The cheers that went up across the stadium easily trebled any that had come for the previous countries.

** He aten't dead yet...

** His [http://www.paulkidby.com/news/dec2007.html blog post on Paul Kidby's website announcing his diagnosis] ends with:

* The singing of "God Save the Queen" and accompanying flag-raising at the Beijing Olympics.

* In New York, during Fleet Week a few years ago, several replica ships in New York Harbor were hosting exhibits of the Slave Trade.

* Cancer.

** A CNN Documentary on cancer once interviewed several people who had either survived the disease or lost someone close because of it. At the end of the documentary, they asked all of them the same question: "If you made a movie about cancer, how would you end it?". Many talked of an ending of people triumphing over adversity, but the one that hits hardest was the simple, selfless response of an old widow who had lost her husband to cancer:

** Cancer has robbed the world of so many amazing people (see the rest of this page for evidence). Cancer is a cruel trick played on our bodies to where cells mutate and grow and trick normal cells into allowing the mutated cells into growing and eventually taking over an organ or even a whole body if the cancer has metastasized. So many hundreds of millions of dollars has gone into cancer research and a whole lot more people are surviving after cancer than there were even 15 years ago. Even in the 1960s cancer was considered a death sentence. But the fact that a cure has still not been found and it's proving to be incredibly difficult to find a cure....

* In the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, is a plaque commissioned by the loved-ones of the dead first-responders, to the explosion at '''Chernobyl'''. What does it read? "To those who saved the '''world'''." Think about what that means, for a second.

* One of the worst aspects of racism in the American South: after both World Wars, many black veterans who had fought for their country in Europe or the Pacific were treated just like any other black man. Some of them were beaten up. Some were even ''lynched''.

** ''The Grace of Silence'' by Michele Norris is about what her father went through on this subject. He had been shot by police officers not long after returning from Navy service in WWII. He never revealed this to his children, believing they were better off not knowing.

* The sad story of Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian girl who was kidnapped by a pedophile named Wolfgang Priklopil at the age of 10. Wolfgang kept Natascha locked in a tiny little cellar with no windows until she was 18.

** Additionally, Wolfgang reportedly commited suicide after Natascha escaped. Natascha, who suffers from Stockholm Syndrome, has said "I feel more and more sorry for him. He's a poor soul. [When I found out he was dead] I cried inconsolably."

** Terry Pratchett made the comment that "Deafness doesn't prevent composers from hearing the music. It prevents the distractions."

* The Winnenden Massacre. Any school shooting is tragic, and they happen so often. An article in a large weekly t starts out like this (translated for your reading pleasure):

At 9:45am, nothing in Winnenden still was as it had been just a moment before. }}

* Hearing your grandmother wish out loud that she was dead, after three strokes, will do it to you.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g Pale Blue Dot], and the Voyager missions on a whole. Sending a tiny probe to the outermost reaches of the solar system, 6 billion kilometres away, and having it turn its cameras back to its home one last time before leaving to journey across the interstellar void for eons. The resulting image, and the speech and book that Carl Sagan wrote for it, sums up the [[Crapsack World]]:

* Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowe's ballet performance [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c ''Hand in Hand''], the dancers were ''missing their arm and leg'' respectively.

* Arson. A bit worse than accidental fires because these fires were set intentionally.

* [http://www.inquisitr.com/84128/game-designer-brian-wood-dies-protecting-his-pregnant-wife/ Brian Wood,] a game designer, sacrificed himself to keep his wife and unborn baby alive. Coincidentally, he worked on ''[[Company of Heroes]]'', and few will say that "hero" doesn't describe Brian perfectly. The very best of wishes to your family, Mr. Wood. We mean that with the greatest sincerity.

* An American missionary couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, were held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group in the Philippines for more than a year, while their three children were in the United States. Martin kept Gracia going through unimaginably difficult circumstances, and managed to befriend and earn the respect of many of their captors. On June 7, 2002, the Philippine military attacked Abu Sayyaf in an attempt to free the hostages (which included Filipinos)--Martin was [http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/08/world/muslims-us-hostage-is-killed-in-gun-battle-in-the-philippines.html?ref=gracia_burnham shot and killed] by the very people trying to rescue him. Gracia was wounded, but survived. For a brave husband and father to make it through a year of captivity, then die on the very day of rescue, is heartbreaking.

** As an additional punch in the gut, here is an excerpt from the suicide note of one jumper: "I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump." [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact?currentPage=6#ixzz0zjbnTYYx\]

** The Prince Edward Viaduct in Toronto, Canada is the second-deadliest suicide bridge in the world, after the Golden Gate. A suicide barrier, the Luminous Veil, was installed about a decade ago. While there are virtually no suicides from the viaduct now, the overall rate of suicide in Toronto has not changed. Apparently, people ''will'' find another place to die.

* The [[wikipedia:Manila hostage crisis|Manila hostage crisis]] towards the people in [[Hong Kong]]. Especially when three members of a family of five were murdered, leaving only the mother and the son (who was critically injured but he got better recently). Among the victims, one of them ''was just only fourteen years old and was also the youngest daughter from the family above.'' She died because she [[Heroic Sacrifice|protected]] her brother from being [[Taking the Bullet|shot]]. *sob*

* Listening to Aron Ralston [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2XLoQ1xYB0 describe his experience of amputating his own arm] to escape a boulder is very, erm, moving.

** Last year, something eerily similar happened to a man named Jonathan Metz. While cleaning out his basement, his arm became trapped behind his boiler. For three days he struggled to break loose, and aside from himself, was worried sick about his dog Portia, who he could hear barking frantically, locked in upstairs. As time went on, he noticed her barking spells becoming fainter and less frequent, coinciding with his own weakening state, and finally resolved to cut his arm off in order to get free. His story was featured on the TV show [[I Survived]]. At the end of the episode, the viewer was given an update on his condition, and this final footnote was included:

* "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist." These words alone are enough. That letter ''is'' Christmas as far as I'm concerned.

* The 2010 Chilean miners rescue. Seeing the first rescued miner walk on the surface for the first time in two months will make your heart soar. Seeing him pick up his seven-year-old son will make even the most stonehearted person cry a waterfall of [[Manly Tears]].

* [http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-04/india/29735331_1_kidney-transplant-eye-surgery-girl-ends-life This story] about a little girl who committed suicide so her vision-impaired father could be given her eyes and her brother could be given her kidneys. Even worse, the girl left a suicide note explaining this, but it wasn't found until after she was cremated.

* The Oslo attack. The shootings at Utöya. Over eighty people died so that the shooter would gain as much publicity as possible for his book, but this sentence written by him, roughly translated:

** Notice the smiley. He talked about a massacre that he had committed and didn't even acknowledge it, made it into a joke. I...

* This Message: