At the top of the month I asked you whether the upcoming movie release by United Artists entitled, “United 93,” and dramatizing the events of September 11, 2001, was too much, too soon.
I asked because I wondered whether the gravity of that day’s events needs any Hollywood dramatization to lend it weight, burned as it is into my memory, as it is in yours, as it is in all of ours.
Because the memories of those frozen moments when the minute hand refused to advance is with us still.
As are the memories of the NYPD who rushed to the scene, and the firemen who bravely charged up those stairs, many of whom never came back down again.
As are the memories of the smoke, the burnt pieces of everyday office paper that fluttered gently down to earth to lie softly beside what was left of the jumpers.
As is the slow, nightmare memory of all it come crashing down, the running away in the dust and smoke, all races turned to one by the all-embracing ash, the chaos, the posters asking, “Have you seen my daughter-son-husband-wife-sister-brother-friend?”
As is the memory of all those memorial services that never seemed to end, and the hollowing out of the ground afterwards, like digging out a cancer from our collective soul, hard work, but honest, necessary.
I asked you if it was too soon because there are still across this country thousands of dinner tables where an empty chair screams silently at shattered families who need no movie to make the howling emptiness in their lives coherent, real and tangible.
In the Wall Street Journal today, Dave Beamer answered. Dave Beamer, who lost a son:
I encourage my fellow Americans and free people everywhere to see “United 93.”
Be reminded of our very real enemy. Be inspired by a true story of heroic actions taken by ordinary people with victorious consequences. Be thankful for each precious day of life with a loved one and make the most of it. Resolve to take the right action in the situations of life, whatever they may be. Resolve to give thanks and support to those men, women, leaders and commanders who to this day (1,687 days since Sept. 11, 2001) continue the counterattacks on our enemy and in so doing keep us safe and our freedoms intact.
I will tell you a little secret: I don’t want to see this movie. I don’t. I know how it ends. I remember all of it, every moment.
But I will see it. I will go. And I think perhaps you should too.
I will see it because after five years of incessant war, I have become weary of the fight, even though it is not I who bears the burden of it. It has been such a long, hard road, and we are nowhere near the end of it. Because I wish that we could pass this cup, rather than continue to drink of it.
I will see it because many of the same people who howl that it is “too soon,” are the some of same ones who pulled the images down from the news feed 24 hours after that horrible day, because they thought it might might make me angry. Who would prefer that I focus my outrage and – say it: retribution – not against those who authored the attacks, but upon those who were afflicted by them.
I will see it because I would like to remember a time when, even though the ashes had been washed off, there were no races. We were all of us, as those TV commercials used to say, American.
I will see it because although I have myself seen the wolf, I do not know that I would have had the same courage as those passengers, who took a fatal risk so that others might live, and seeing it is a way of honoring their sacrifice.
I will see it because if Dave Beamer can take the pain of losing his son, then I probably stand the pain of bearing witness to his son’s courage.
Okay? Let’s roll.
I will see it as well. Although I, too, very much remember the actual event, I have the sense that in reminding myself of the reality of what occurred, and in stirring my emotions, I am doing a useful thing.
I wasn’t born in 1941, but my soul is stirred each time I see the black & white film of the Pearl Harbor attack, with the huge black surge of smoke that rushes upward from the stack of the stricken USS Arizona. I am always startled at how high it goes–how long it takes to reach it’s highest point. Will it ever stop?
As a lad, I had thought that, after our December 7 experience, we would never allow ourselves to be taken again like that. But we were on September 11.
If we don’t remember 12/7 and 9/11, it will happen again. And the next time, we may not survive.
So I will see United 93, and I hope it is replayed on television often.
When I read this I am so reminded of the song Save The Last Dance For Me…
I won’t go see it in a theater- it’s too personal for that. But I will curl up on the couch with loved ones and watch it on DVD.
And rest assured, I will cry. I’ll cry for those lost in the planes. I’ll cry for the people killed in their offices. I’ll cry, again, when I hear the eery sound of the firefighter’s beacons going off, letting everyone know that they’re down and haven’t moved in 60 seconds.
I’ll cry, and I’ll get angry, all over again, just like I was for months after 9/11/01. And then, when the crying stops, I’ll look around, be grateful for my family and friends, and think about all who have given so much to the GWOT since that morning in September.
Never Forget. Always Remember…. no matter how hard the memory may be.
You and Dave Beamer have convinced me. I don’t know which of you were more convincing, however.
Universal has a web site up for the movie and have seen fit to include a page about ‘why they hate us’. That just about convinced me not to go to see the movie in a theater and give those people any of my money, but as you say Lex if Dave Beamer can find the courage so can I.
yeah I’m gonna see it too man. Flight 93 flops and we’ll suffer under 3 more decades of Oliver Stone whine-flicks about how the military ruined his life.
Agreed – I don’t *want* to go see it. But I *will* go see it. I think it’s important for everyone to see it. I will pass out money for my sons and my extras to go see it and as many of their friends as want to.
But this comes from a know-it-all, conservative, pushy Bostonian. Everyone else can give it due consideration……….and then do as I say!
Like AFSister, I’ll rent it and watch in the privacy of my home, where I will feel free to let the tears flow. And flow they will, as they do every time I see film of 9/11.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, I think it’s unseemly for an elderly man to cry unabashedly in public.
Retread: Do you have a specific url for “…have seen fit to include a page about ?
Like AFSister, I’ll rent it and watch in the privacy of my home, where I will feel free to let the tears flow. And flow they will, as they do every time I see film of 9/11.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, I think it’s unseemly for an elderly man to cry unabashedly in public.
Retread: Do you have a specific url for “…have seen fit to include a page about ‘why they hate us’? I looked all over the Universal Flight 93 web site and couldn’t find any such page.
If the movie makes me call for tears, then something is wrong. Every so often, I go back and hit some of the sites with the photos of the terrified mobs, the firemen in the stairwells, and the jumpers. I re-read the story of Rick Rescorla. And I get angry, very very angry. I need to remember that day, every so often, when the inertia and minutiae of staff life overwhelm me.
I get very concerned when I hear a warrior like CAPT Lex say he’s very weary, the war has gone on so long already, because the cold truth is that this war is only in its very first stages, and despite our sheer global busy-ness, we are really conducting a sort of “sitzkrieg.” Already CENTCOM talks of the “long war,” while State doesn’t seem to even recognize that we are in a mortal conflict. Within our lifetimes we will probably see the catastrophic loss of Europe, a loss that we will not be able to restore with a second Normandy invasion. We will see the shariah states develop a nuclear weapons capability, with a delivery capability to go with it. This, coupled with an insanely dangerous cultural and moral relativism in the USA, a PCness that cripples our ability to name the enemy who has a very real chance not of conquering us, but of compelling us to bend our knee in submission and abandon the blood-earned rights we were founded to preserve, the rights granted us by Nature and Nature’s God. If you doubt our inability to name the enemy, stop at any ten desks at random in CENTCOM, and ask who the enemy is. I promise you ten different answers. Just because they can’t beat us in open warfare, doesn’t mean they can’t win, even if the sprawling staff tasked with winning the war can’t possibly imagine how.
However the movie frames the story, please don’t leave crying. The four thugs who took over the plane were not a tiny minority who “hijacked a peaceful religion,” but the vanguard of another, much larger and more powerful force to follow. Leave with fists clenched, heart filled with passion and grim determination, that like the passengers of UA93, you will fight to the end. We will not see the end of the fight, nor likely will our children, and we will see far, far worse losses than we saw on 9/11. The passengers of UA93 were the first “post 9/11″ combatants, though, and though they knew their likely end, they did not despair. They fought, and they fell. We have the rest of the fight before us, may we all acquit ourselves as honorably as they did.
Well said, Zane. Well said indeed.
On a sunny September morning, my friend Mark boarded a plane in Boston. He was bound for Los Angeles, and a new job as a scout for the Kings. He was finally realizing his dream of being in the NHL, even if not as a player.
That dream, and the dreams of thousands of others were vaporized in the horror and chaos wrought by a fiendish savagery I still struggle to comprehend. But in those same terrifying moments, the true character and greatness of our Nation and our People were evident as well.
Average Americans, everyday foks with no training or preparation rose up and struck the first blow in our defense. Hundreds of brave souls risked life and limb to save others, rushing in where angels feared tread. So many gave the “last full measure of devotion” on that terrible morning.
I will see United 93. For my buddy Markie B. For Tod and his fellow passengers. For the NYPD, NYFD. For Rick Rescorla and his team. For Paul R. Smith, Rafeal Peralta, Jason Dunham and the legions that await us on Fiddler’s Green.
For my children, should fortune so bless me.
Let’s Roll, indeed.
#8 Buck,
Here’s the URL, via LGF:
http://u93.org/why_do_they_hate_america/conflicts_past_and_present/
On 9/11, the daughter of my dearest friends also boarded a plane in Boston, headed for L.A. and a series of business meetings. She was scheduled to leave on 9/10, but for reasons no one will ever know, she decided at the last minute to fly stand-by on the 11th.
I’m mixed on going to see the film – at first I said NO, it IS too soon. Then I’ve read more and realized perhaps it’s NEVER too soon to honor the sacrifices of so many innocent citizens.
Will I see it in a theater? I just don’t know – it scares me to see a dramatization of such a personal experience. I know it’s about one flight out of 4 that day and that the people on 93 showed the ultimate courage and character.
I admire those of you who say you will go see it, like Lex. And I understand and applaud all your reasons. But for me, I just don’t know.
In memory of Heather Lee Smith, Flight 11
I went to see the film this weekend, and while it was hard to watch, it was as well done as one could imagine. Realistic, no over-dramatizations, as honest and respectful as possible.
Kris – I’m sorry for your loss. The film was dedicated at the end to all of the people killed in the attacks, not just those on Flight 93, if that helps.