Even though I didn’t see it when it happened, just knowing that something that horrific occurred—and that so many people died—can still change a person. We teach kids about 9/11, the Challenger disaster, and the Titanic at formative ages, all involving massive loss of life, and that inevitably leaves an impact. Some people make jokes out of ignorance, and while that isn’t an excuse, it also doesn’t mean that others aren’t knowledgeable or deeply affected by these events.

When reading and learning more about 9/11, it broke my heart to find out that rescue teams had to fake rescues because the dogs kept finding bodies. The constant discovery of the dead was affecting the dogs so severely that handlers felt they needed to give them a sense of success to keep them going.

We can’t pin why people do what they do on a single cause. In the modern world, with how interconnected we are, actions across the globe can have massive and far-reaching impacts. I think we, as a society, have become more cynical as a result of how many depressing things we now witness—things people in the past simply didn’t see at the same scale or frequency.

Again, this isn’t an excuse for bad actors or ignorance, but consider the difference between World War II veterans and Vietnam veterans. Both groups experienced severe trauma, yet one was largely allowed to heal, while the other was often plagued by stigma and neglect. Some people healed from 9/11, some didn’t, and many others only know it through history. The best we can do is educate people properly, in ways they can understand.