September 20, 2001

11:43 PM

The Dead Zone all over again? Lucich said the boy approached his teacher on the afternoon of Sept. 10 and casually told her: "Tomorrow, World War III will begin. It will begin in the United States, and the United States will lose." eerie little story about a 5th grader in Dallas
posted by lelilo (17 comments total)

I was reading the second post about people making bomb jokes in airports, and this story was linked on the side of one of the bomb stories in the Houston Chronicle. I know it's just a coincidence (unless the kid is the new Nostradamus), but I still find it creepy.
posted by lelilo at 11:47 PM on September 20, 2001

The TIP?!? Some 10-year-old gets a little too creative during Story Time and it's considered a meaningful clue? Yeesh.

Ever consider that junior might have overhead some adults who might have known about this in advance? Not to mention the liability of not telling if someone this kid knew actually had inside information. I'm sure you'd be just as outraged at silence that could have saved lives as to suggestions of prophesy.

Its called covering one's ass, its a very exact sceince.
posted by skallas at 12:20 AM on September 21, 2001

I predicted the US bombing of Libya in 7th grade. They took my Nostradamus book off me and told me to stop scaring people. Guess Ronnie showed them, huh.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:23 AM on September 21, 2001

Personally, I think when he says America's going to lose WWIII he's talking about how Quincy Carter and America's Team is expected to fare this season. I'm inclined to agree.
posted by Bixby23 at 12:26 AM on September 21, 2001

a related anecdote:

a friend of mine works with emotionally and developmentally disabled kids in western massachusetts. in her own words (written on 9/11):

"... yesterday one of our mentally retarded kids kept going on and on about world war III. we kept telling him that there wasn't a wwIII but he kept insisting and became upset. we just dropped it but now it feels spooky. "
posted by damn yankee at 12:30 AM on September 21, 2001

Not to mention many of these coincidences could easily be considered synchronicities. I think I sounded too much like a rationalist in my first post.
posted by skallas at 1:29 AM on September 21, 2001

Based on the popularity of war amongst youngsters these days, and the fact that WW III is a relatively common phrase, something tells me that it would actually have been statistically unlikely if no child had made mention of WW III in the days preceding the incident. The fact that his statements were so specific was odd, but by no means remarkable.

And besides, WW III hasn't started, so he was very very wrong.
posted by j.edwards at 1:48 AM on September 21, 2001

And besides, WW III hasn't started, so he was very very wrong.

Literally he was completey wrong. There is no intercontinetal war going on. The only thing that happened on 9/11 worth noting is the terrorist attack in NYC and the Northern Alliance attacking one of Kabul's ammo depots.

I think what makes this seem prophetic is that if you ignore the literal phrase you can make parallels to WTC and the assissination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Maybe the percieved message is that WTC is the catalyst of WWIII.

statistically unlikely if no child had made mention of WW III in the days preceding the incident.

I agree, someone somewhere must have been chatting about it. But the oddness isn't its mention but that he supposedly got out of character and went to an authority figure as if to warn her. This is a lot more odd, than say kids playing a WWIII video game or talking about the cold war in passing.
posted by skallas at 2:05 AM on September 21, 2001

This sounds like a brand new urban myth to me - especially as it's coming from two independent sources (the one in the main post and damn yankee's friend).

I went to look for it on snopes.com, and found this interesting page of world trade center rumours.
posted by mudskunk at 2:34 AM on September 21, 2001

Argh, those WTC rumors have triggered a wave of irrational fears that I'd thus far successfully supressed.

Thanks.
posted by aladfar at 8:36 AM on September 21, 2001

Great link, mudskunk, showing that 42% of the most popular rumors are, in fact, true. I'd hadn't heard this quote (true, they say) from our leader: President Bush declared, "I'm not gonna fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the ass."
posted by lelilo at 9:51 AM on September 21, 2001

Let's say the kid actually did say all of this. How many times have you had a premonition that something bad was imminent, but it never came? I've had that feeling many times, and I'm still here.

I think we can just write this one off as a kid's imagination running a little wild and as being freakishly coincidental.
posted by catatonic at 10:07 AM on September 21, 2001

Hey, maybe it's like on "Buffy" when all the crazy people could actually see that Dawn was the Key?
posted by jdbanks at 10:25 AM on September 21, 2001

I see dead people. They talk to me.
posted by bug138 at 10:51 AM on September 21, 2001

President Bush declared, "I'm not gonna fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the ass."
Actually I thought that it's the first funny thing I've heard in the last 10 days. And he's right, too
posted by matteo at 10:57 AM on September 21, 2001