The Pendragon's Hall

I saw the new movie United 93 this afternoon in Buffalo. It is a wrenching movie to watch, particularly because we know the ending when the movie begins. It is hard to see excited young women making plans with their boyfriends and middle-aged men planning vacations when just a few yards away in the same line sit four men who were plotting to take their lives. Throughout, as the flight experienced delays and the lead terrorist sat waiting for "the right time", I found myself praying, "Let him lose his nerve, let him lose his nerve." Of course, he doesn't and the takeover goes as planned. In the meantime, FAA and the control towers are in bedlam, with hundreds of flights screwed up and reports of hijacking coming in from all over. Then the towers come down and the Pentagon is hit. On board the plane a handful of the men realize that they are doomed to die either way and decide to try to take the plane back and crash it without reaching their destination. I knew this part; what I did not know was that two men on the plane had long experience flying planes and agreed to try and fly the plane after the terrorists were disposed of, hoping to save all their lives. It is heartbreaking to watch this be denied to them. I also did not know that only one flight attendent, the two pilots and one passenger were killed at the outset. The rest of the attendents joined the passengers in their final stand. In the final minutes before the crash, the passengers and attendents are all on the phone to their families, one flight attendent sobbing, "If I just get off this plane, I'll quit tomorrow." I left the theatre with all the emotions of 9/11 running through my head again, shaking with fury--I could hardly drive back to my home in Houghton. It infuriates me still that otherwise intelligent people can say with a straight face that the monsters who did this deserve any kind of human pity. Rush Limbaugh is right: this movie is not only NOT too soon, it is long overdue. Despite its intensity, everyone in this country 17 and older should watch it. The emotions have worn off: people are beginning to lose sight of why the United States must fight this global war on terror, alone if need be although preferably with the help of allies. Historian John Lewis Gaddis of Yale commented on the events of 9/11: "Although the accuracy of historical writing diminishes as it approaches the present--because perspectives are shorter and there are fewer sources to work with...the relevance of such writing increases. We act in the present with the view of shaping the future only on the basis of what we know from the past. So we might as well try to know our recent history as best we can, however imperfect the exercise may be. An incomplete map is better than no map at all." To forget what happened would be to dishonor the memory of those brave passengers who, rather than sit and wait for death, rose up to do what they could to lessen the burden on their country. Like the song says, "They more than self their country loved and mercy more than life!"

In light of my viewing of this movie, my rage only increase at the idiocy of Hollywood. Boy genius Charlie Sheen, whose only area of expertise is shooting off his mouth, suggested the US government deliberately imploded the Twin Towers on 9/11: "I said to my brother, 'Call me insane, but did it look sort of like those buildings came down in a controlled demolition?'" All I can say is, it's nice to know while real Americans across the world and even the French sat glued to their televisions and gaped in horror at the death and devastation wreaked on their fellow human beings, the Sheen brothers were calmly analyzing the attacks and wondering idly whether the US government had done it on purpose. What a disgrace.