Gareth Owen wrote:
Well, it pretty much proves that his only real claim
to fame is the
fact he died on 9/11.
Which in turn means that he does, in fact, have a claim to fame, and
should be included, right?
And it proves the only reason that Cunc is pushing
for his
non-deletion is because he has a bee in his bonnet -- and has had
for the best part of the last 2 years -- about trying to make
wikipedia.org a monument to 9/11. Its not, or at least it shouldn't
be.
Well, I understand where you're coming from here, although I think
that's a bit unfair to Cunc. We started
sep11.wikipedia.org in an
effort to resolve the problem of 'memorials' instead of article. And
Cunc was basically supportive of that idea, as I recall.
Does dying at Ypres make you noteworthy?
Does dying in the Hundred Years War make you noteworthy?
Does dying in Auschwitz make you noteworthy?
Does dying in the 1918-1919 inflenza epidemic make you noteworthy?
Does dying of industrial related illnesses due to management
incompetence in Welsh coal mines make you noteworthy? [0]
My answer to all of these would hinge on confirmability by other
contributors. I personally find the history of ordinary people quite
interesting, particularly if placed in the context of a time.
[0] Please say yes, I feel like my grandfather needs a
write up.
Please say no, I'd just like to see the reasons.
Are there newspaper articles about your grandfather? Anything that we
could easily verify?
[1] (The WTC collapse killed 2,792 people in one day.
The 1919
inflenza killed 22 million people in 18 months, or equivalent to
10-15 9/11s, every day)
*nod* But if your point is that we can't have articles about all those
people, I'd say that we're arguing then about a non-existent problem,
because no one is trying to add those articles, are they?
Think along the lines of Studs Terkel's _Hard Times_, a book about
ordinary people during the great depression, oral histories. The
people in the book are, arguably, not noteworthy. But reading about
them is valuable because they took part in an important time and event
(the U.S. Great Depression of the 1930s).
--Jimbo