<< ONE-FIFTH OF A QUAGMIRE ~ MAIN ~ GAZANS GONE WILD >>
BELIEF REVEALED
Graeme Blundell’s review of The Falling Man includes a curious claim:
In an extraordinary act of national media self-censorship, several days after the photograph appeared, it vanished. Papers across the US defended themselves against charges of invading a dying man’s privacy and turning tragedy into pornography. The photograph became impermissible. There was a deeply held belief the deaths of the jumpers weren’t proper, indeed that they were cowardly. The images that came to symbolise the day were of helmeted heroic rescuers working in the rubble and the jumpers disappeared to the shameful websites that traffic in autopsy photos and videotapes of executions.
Weren’t proper? Cowardly?
UPDATE. Evil Pundit notes: “I have never seen anyone, anywhere, suggesting that the jumpers were cowardly. Not even the lefties I read.” Same here.
UPDATE II. Texasred:
I cannot see those photographs without crying, even today. I sat in front of the television and wept and prayed on the day it happened. And along with the tears came, and still comes, instantaneous fury at the twisted bastards who murdered so many innocents, and who forced such a horrendous choice on those who knew they were going to die and so chose to end it on their own terms.
UPDATE III. Geoff:
I don’t know much about patriotism and all that stuff. I’m getting on a bit now and I’ve seen a lot in this world that makes me question some of these basic concepts of my youth.
But I can sure tell you one thing. I know a stinking filthy bunch of worthless cowardly murderers when I see them.
I too shook my head in amazement when I read that line. I don’t even think Ward Churchill ever made such a bizarre suggestion. Blundell seems to have been infected with his subject’s idiot idea that those who jumped “died in ways that make us uncomfortable”.
Posted by Captain Wacky on 2006 08 26 at 05:30 AM • permalinkThat’s up there with Andrew Jaspan being all “sceptical” of Douglas Wood for calling his captors assholes. If you’re fed everyday, who are you to complain?
But is author in this instance making the point that the jumpers were cowardly, or merely referencing views held by others?
Posted by Texas Ranger on 2006 08 26 at 05:42 AM • permalinkAnd lets face it we all equate courage with Graeme Blundell. Although he maybe about to find out that this article was indeed “courageous” in the Sir Humphrey Appleby sense of the word.
Some people’s brains just aren’t wired up right are they.Posted by the nailgun on 2006 08 26 at 06:04 AM • permalinkThe whole discussion seems to me to assume that everyone in the towers had a choice, including the jumpers. I don’t believe that we can imagine the sheer terror that innocent people can have endured that day and what their all-too-human reactions may have been in the few short seconds that remained of their lives.
Not one of us has the right to judge the victims. But we all have a duty to judge the filth that would perpetrate these crimes.
Number 9 - exactly.
Judge we should. This is where moral relativists looking for “root causes” manage to dilute the issue at hand - killing is wrong and it should go punished.
Posted by Texas Ranger on 2006 08 26 at 06:16 AM • permalinkWhat struck me here was Blundell’s turgid and overwritten, or as George Orwell might have put it, pompous and slovenly prose, so it’s a bit difficult to know what he is on about.
Is this the same Graeme Blundell who was an actor in the seventies out of the Pram Factory threater in Melbourne. That Blundell never struck me as an actor of any particular range or versatility.
If it is the same Blundell, by what process does a mediochre actor morph into an oracle and a guru??
Posted by Consuela Potez on 2006 08 26 at 06:20 AM • permalinkyes, #9. I don’t look fwd to seeing the images but I accept the need to remind myself why we fight and what payback is owed.
the newspapers, IMO, want only (or mostly) to avoid showing anything to arouse anger...on one side.Posted by Jim,MtnViewCA,USA on 2006 08 26 at 06:22 AM • permalinkI have never seen anyone, anywhere, suggesting that the jumpers were cowardly. Not even the lefties I read.
Perhaps Blundell should provide some examples of this “widely held belief”.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2006 08 26 at 06:26 AM • permalinkOver at Captain’s Quarters blog there’s a review of a program coming to The Discovery Channel on Sept 03.
Here’s a couple paragraphs from that review:
Inside doesn’t fall into the trap of telling just the happy endings or the heroics alone, but focuses on the ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. One very sad tale involves a man who could not bring himself to keep moving and the two men who encountered him in the stairwell. One man stuck with him to the end and died because of it; the other left when it became apparent that time had run out. The widow of the man who gave up credits the latter with making the right decision, but the survivor tells TDC that his actions were ‘cowardly’—a heartbreaking moment when you realize the pain this man will have for the rest of his life.
It also tells the story of the people who never had the chance to get out, those trapped above the impact zone in the North Tower. Phone records and the testimony of those contacted by people from the Windows on the World restaurant paint a portrait of victims who slowly realize that help will never come. Other survivors wonder why they didn’t try to find more people.
It is taking every bit of my(diminishing) restraint for me to not express my most fervent wish for blundell to have to face these same choices, and soon.... In the most graphic and eliminationist language possible.
#9 Hear hear.
Given the choice of burning/suffocating to death or jumping from above 90 storeys I don’t know what I would choose.
I hope to God I and anyone else ever has to make that choice again.
I was horrified that people jumped, and that I heard that people on the ground floor level of the WTC trying to rescue victims actually heard the bodies falling.
Seeing this horror unfold on television through the day was surreal, but it was happening to people. A woman I worked with had a nephew who worked in the WTC or a nearby building. Her family spent a frantic half day trying to find out whether he was all right. Fortunately he was away from work that day and was safe, no doubt he lost a lot of workmates and friends were affected by the horrific loss.Its strange isn’t it. The Left have no qualms about printing photos showing the A-bomb cloud at Hiroshima to condemn America, yet, show a tragic photo of a man killed by the Sept 11 bombings, and the media all goes moralistic and silent? What next - are they going to censor any reference of the Islamic terrorists attacking the WTC ?
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 08 26 at 06:55 AM • permalinkSome people say that suicide is an act of cowardice. I have never thought that. But having seen first hand, more than once, the horrible aftermath of a suicide, the horrific impact on family and friends, I can well understand the anger and frustration at the dead.
But we are talking about something entirely different. This thing is not suicide. It is cold-blooded murder at its worst. I have never seen or heard any suggestion from anyone, even the worst of the cranks, that this was “improper” or “cowardly”. That Blundell has confused this image of a vicious and cruel murder with “suicide”, or whatever else it was that led him to use those words, is intellectual laziness.
That’s the kindest way I can put it.
I think you are being a little unkind. OK, the piece is not well written, but look at what he is trying to say (I think):
Papers across the US defended themselves against charges of invading a dying man’s privacy and turning tragedy into pornography. The photograph became impermissible[to the MSM]. There was a deeply held belief [within the MSM] the deaths of the jumpers weren’t proper, indeed that they were cowardly.
Yes, I am, interpreting this, but if the sense of what he is saying here is actually a comment on the MSM perceptions of the jumpers that day, then he may be on to something.
Because he is right - images of the Fall of the Towers did vanish from the MSM quickly, and nearly completely.
Why?
The Falling Man image is iconic, confronting, and compelling. I can never look at it without knowing in my bones that the primitive, evil barbarian bastards who forced him to make that terrifying decision rejoiced that they did so to him, and would rejoice to do that to you, and to me. So my instinctive reaction is to reach for a weapon. Any weapon.
Perhaps Blundell is right. Perhaps THAT is why the MSM placed it out of bounds. Because it told us too much, and because it revealed their own lies and their own cowardly worthlessness.
It tells normal people who the enemy is. And our self-professed betters in the MSM say that ‘we can’t have that‘....
MarkL
CanberraPlease bear in mind that Graeme Blundell is a minor comedy actor from the 1970s, who is mostly famous for starring in a series of sex comedies that make Benny Hill (peace be unto him) look like Samuel Beckett. He hasn’t had a decent gig since then, and has re-invented himself as a ‘writer’. Sorry, I forgot, he also appeared in one of the later Star Wars movies, but then, so did most of the waiters in Sydney.
My reading of it matched MarkL’s. I don’t think Graeme was voicing an idea of his own there.
Still a claim I wish he’d have elaborated on more, because he’s not substaniating it. If the media really did look down on the jumpers, I want to know it for sure. Not hear it as one of those sourceless allegations we hate when they back an idea we don’t like.
Friends,
Every time I see that image and a few like it, of that horrible day, I get a terrible feeling in my stomach.
Still. Five years later, I get twisted up.
Whatever the trigger that causes it, it is important people suffer that feeling from time to time, for without it, we are doomed to feel far worse in the future.
OK. I’m happy to give the guy the benefit of the doubt.
But I’m with Sortelli. If in fact this was the thinking behind the disappearance of the photo, or even just part of the thinking, I want to know about it. Afterall that’s an issue.
My opinion on elements of the MSM probably could not get worse. But I’m willing to give it a try.
#20 MarkL - Blundell’s escape clause will be that Blundell says the thoughts weren’t his, that describing the jumpers as “cowardly” is describing how the MSM thoinks of the jumpers. But that won’t wash if Blundell’s use of “cowardly” turns out to be the first time the word was used to describe the jumpers. If he came up with the word first, then that’s him speaking.
The Left have no qualms about printing photos showing the A-bomb cloud at Hiroshima to condemn America, yet, show a tragic photo of a man killed by the Sept 11 bombings, and the media all goes moralistic and silent?
Never mind Hiroshima. Notice they’ll gladly show dead children from Lebanon, often running dozens of (different) shots of the same corpse. They want us to get made because of the staged photos from Lebanon, but want us to forget 9/11.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 08 26 at 08:28 AM • permalinkI don’t buy the MarkL interpretation at #20 at all. We are told the photos became impermissible right after being told the papers were being charged with invading privacy. That latter must have come from the public (can you imagine journalists charging it?) and so it follows that the public found it impermissible.
The next bit about it being improper and cowardly is just sloppy logic, or a non sequitur, by Blundell. When has the public demanded that cowardly people’s privacy be respected. That wasn’t the reason they wanted it respected. It’s just an egregious insult he’s thrown in. Hence Tim B. picking him up on it.
MarkL, on the other hand, thinks the photos revolt the public and steels it against the ultimate perpetrators which makes the MSM feel cowardly and worthless because they want to dictate the public’s responses. This doesn’t follow. The MSM I’m sure wants to dictate our responses but they wouldn’t feel cowardly and worthless if they didn’t get it right. They would instead feel intensely frustrated with our seeming stupidity. Doesn’t that sound more like them?
Grimmy, I fixed your link. Somehow a line break got into it and messed things up. When you copy a url to put in the box. I’ve noticed that on some blogs it’s difficult to copy just the selected text you want by clicking and dragging the mouse, the spaces after and the next line keep jumping in, forcing you to do the old-fashioned shift-key plus arrow keys manoeuvre to get just the text you want.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 08 26 at 09:05 AM • permalinkI saw people jumping and never considered it suicide. It was a choice between the auto-de-fe of the islamists or the quick death of their own making.
They made a CHOICE not to die by burning, I only hope they closed their eyes and thought back to when they were 5 and could fly....Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 08 26 at 09:20 AM • permalink"There is an element of exclusion. We want to remember this day for its heroism. But they should not be excluded from the consecrated ground of American soil because they died in ways that make us uncomfortable.”
They were all heroes that day. The heroic that die, DO make us feel uncomfortable and should. This unidentified hero, is just as much so, as in a Todd Beamer, in saying “Let’s Roll” in bringing a plane bound for more death and casualty, down before its mission was accomplished, with the help of other heroes that day.
The same for civilian’s helping others to their own demise, the same for the FDNY and NYPD, going UP stairs, never to return.
We mourn their deaths and salute the bravery, heroism and honor, in their lives.
The same for the brave of our nations in uniform, serving, dying and being maimed across several nations because of a filthy Islamic cult, bent on killing, subverting and/or destroying.
The same kind of ‘heroism’ holds true, in the several filthy Islamic cult nations. For ‘those’ that committed this horror are ‘honored’ as heroes, NOT for the lives they led, but for their deaths and the deaths they caused.
It is NOT the victim or victims of this crime and act of war that should be questioned, denigrated, or shunned. It IS the perpetrator of this crime, that should be questioned, denigrated, shunned and have justice AND retribution brought to them.
We must NEVER forget, we must NEVER forgive.
Mr Blundell deserves none of the benefit of the doubt that some are giving him. Mr Blundell noted the disappearance of those pictures from the media, but was apparently unwilling to make any effort to discover the actual reason for that fact. Instead he fabricated a reason. How surprising - how very surprising - that this fabricated reason just happens to be one that puts the American people in the worst possible light.
A deeply held belief that he was cowardly? Is that writer crazy?
That man was freeing himself from hell.There was another falling man; no one blamed him either:
From a witness of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire:
A young man helped a girl to the window sill. Then he held her out, deliberately away from the building and let her drop. He seemed cool and calculating. He held out a second girl the same way and let her drop. Then he held out a third girl who did not resist. I noticed that. They were as unresisting as if her were helping them onto a streetcar instead of into eternity. Undoubtedly he saw that a terrible death awaited them in the flames, and his was only a terrible chivalry.
Then came the love amid the flames. He brought another girl to the window. Those of us who were looking saw her put her arms about him and kiss him. Then he held her out into space and dropped her. But quick as a flash he was on the window sill himself. His coat fluttered upward—the air filled his trouser legs. I could see that he wore tan shoes and hose. His hat remained on his head.
Thud—dead, thud—dead—together they went into eternity. I saw his face before they covered it. You could see in it that he was a real man. He had done his best.
I can’t think of anyone, *ever*, with the exception of Graeme Blundell, who would fault people in a hopeless situation for choosing death on the pavement over burning alive.
I would hope that the photos of the Falling Man would still make us “uncomfortable”, as it should. The day we get “comfortable” with the idea of people being forced by terrorists to make the choice between leaping 100 floors to their deaths or being burned alive, is the day we’ve basically rolled up our way of life into a little ball and decided to watch it die.
I don’t remember any member of the public ever referring to those who jumped on 9/11 as “cowards”, or inferring that their actions were somehow “shameful” to the rest of us. This assertion, to me, is just one more sample of media-driven revisionist history.
Seems like it was the media who decided, after an orgiastic feeding frenzy of showing the images for a few days/weeks, that it was suddenly undignified and in bad taste to continue. As if those vultures ever cared about the dignity or feelings of victims or their families.
Rather, the Falling Man and other images started to disappear from our TV screens about the same time the media decided it was somehow a shameful, biased thing for news anchors to wear American flag lapel pins on-air, about the same time all the celebrities had wrapped up their glossy telethons and commemorative concerts, and had moved on to prattling about Bush and hoping he had the smarts to make a “measured response” to this act of war, about the same time it looked like the American people might actually be willing to go to Afghanistan and do something to remove the Taliban from power.
That was when the media decided the images of the jumpers, like the falling towers themselves, had become “dangerous” to the public psyche. Afterall, we wouldn’t want all that jingoistic, rage-inspiring truth out there, would we? It might remind the simple folk about why they should be willing to defend their way of life and all that other nasty un-multi-culti stuff. And that’s off-message, as far as the media is concerned.
I’d say this piece is just another fine example of media CYA, at it’s best. Exploit the images as long as they can. Try not to do too good of a job of it so as to get the proles all riled up into taking action. Assign their own revisionist history and self-serving motives onto the general public, and try to make themselves seem intellectual and, more importantly, “sensitive” over their own cowardly decisions. And maybe even garner some back slaps and a pretty statue from their peers, while they’re at it.
Nah, nothing cynical to see here folks. Move along, move along…
There was a deeply held belief the deaths of the jumpers weren’t proper, indeed that they were cowardly.
Jesus. I have absolutely no idea how you’d go about getting yourself out of that hole when you’re down that far.Posted by James Waterton on 2006 08 26 at 10:21 AM • permalinkAnd I agree with the poster above. I have seen the jets flying into those buildings from so many angles so many times, and the footage still shocks me to the core every time I see it. Ditto the photos of falling people.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 08 26 at 10:23 AM • permalinkI think that perhaps Graeme Blundell thinks the jumpers were cowardly—although I can’t imagine why. But that paragraph is awkwardly written, so it’s hard to say.
However, Blundell does express the feelings of the documentary’s producer quite well, to wit:
For him [Henry Singer] it is a morality tale. “The jumpers were pushed to the side,” he says quietly. “There is an element of exclusion. We want to remember this day for its heroism. But they should not be excluded from the consecrated ground of American soil because they died in ways that make us uncomfortable."
“...because they died in ways that make us uncomfortable” may be directed at the MSM, or the US population in general, but it is true that those deaths make people uncomfortable. To this day I do not need to see that photo—it is burned into my memory. Not because of the horror of the spectacle, but because of the courage depicted.
In a hopeless situation, people had the presence of mind to chose how to die. They saw what the situation was, they made a choice, and then they acted upon it, consequences be damned. If that isn’t an act of courage, nothing is. My eyes are tearing up just remembering that part of that day.
So perhaps Blundell writes a clumsy paragraph, or expresses his personal opinion clearly. I really don’t care. He does cover the intent of the documentary quite well.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 08 26 at 10:25 AM • permalinkI think the MSM hate those photos because it brings into stark contrast their vile pretentious bullshit campaign to appease the Islamic terrorists. The MSM know they can’t argue against such powerful imagery- so they ignore it.
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 08 26 at 11:02 AM • permalinkToby Harnden’s review - ‘World Trade Center’ is insulting - is well worth reading. (Registration required for the UK Spectator). Oliver Stone apparently set up Staff Sergeant David Karnes as a “a religious zealot.” Karnes is the man who drove home from work on 9/11, changed into his military uniform and went to Ground Zero where he located McLoughlin and Jimeno. Subsequently, he re-enlisted for two tours of duty in Iraq.
Another, er, minor error:
The other former marine who bumped into Karnes at Ground Zero and joined him on his search is identified only as Sergeant Thomas and is played by a short white man. After the show’s premiere, a 6ft 3in, 17-stone black man called Justin Thomas popped up to declare that he was marine number two.
Harnden’s take on why Stone’s otherwise patriotic (dare anyone say it?) movie portrayed Karnes this way: “Perhaps Stone was using the character of Karnes — a person he seems not really to want to understand — to undermine, even subconsciously, the overt rah-rah message of his own film.”
Perhaps Blundell was doing something similar with the falling man. Some on the left want to be passably sentimental about 9/11 but they have to sink the boot in somewhere to preserve their decidedly non rah-rah credentials.
I don’t know much about patriotism and all that stuff. I’m getting on a bit now and I’ve seen a lot in this world that makes me question some of these basic concepts of my youth.
But I can sure tell you one thing. I know a stinking filthy bunch of worthless cowardly murderers when I see them. I know a gang who’s lives are without value of any kind when the filth stumble across my pass. I recognise some absolute travesties of human life when they show their foul and ugly mugs.
We are in the presence of it now. I would not hesitate for a second at the oppoortunity to take some of this slime out.
Western society is turned on its head, the people who have had the best educational opportunitys in the history of the world talk and write the stupidest crap ever, i sincerely hope neither i or anyone else is ever faced with the choice those people faced on that day.
And where does cowardice or elation come into it?, the man is a just another stupid, pampered, western fool a far too common breed these days.Graeme, you wanker, not one person I know thought that man was “cowardly.” Not one reasonable person thinks the man is about us “trying to figure out who we are.” We know who we are, free people who are under attack by the new fascists.
The photograph “witnesses” the savage barbarians who did this to him and would do it again to all of us if they had the chance. The photograph is about the real radical Islam that we have come to know and which the media continues to suppress.
#23 Still. Five years later, I get twisted up.
I agree with you, Dan Lewis, I still get twisted up too, even five years later. It’s a good indication that I’m never going to get over 9/11, even though I wasn’t there and only witnessed the thing on a TV screen. But I saw the first images that were aired, beginning only a half hour or so after the first plane hit, and that included footage of people jumping. You don’t forget that horror when you suddenly realize what it is you’re seeing.
Shortly after that, the networks started editing their footage not to show the jumpers anymore, and I assumed then (and still do) that they did it out of a decent respect for those poor people’s last seconds. Their deaths were not to be aired as “entertainment” or “news”. Likewise with the still photos. We’ve seen them. There’s no need to keep parading them, like the corpse of a Lebanese child. We aren’t going to forget.
I never ever heard anyone say that the people were “cowardly” for jumping, or even heard their deaths referred to as suicides. Most people wouldn’t have the courage to say such a thing, I think. But I don’t believe they were “pushed to the side” so we could all concentrate on the heroics of the day, either. That’s an absolutely stupid thing to say, that assumes the worst of all of us. 9/11 was a day of horror. There is no way to “feel comfortable” about it, no matter what you look at.
I cannot see those photographs without crying, even today. I sat in front of the television and wept and prayed on the day it happened. And along with the tears came, and still comes, instantaneous fury at the twisted bastards who murdered so many innocents, and who forced such a horrendous choice on those who knew they were going to die and so chose to end it on their own terms.
Now, a large part of my fury is directed at the MSM who pulled all those photos, not out of any concern for invasion of privacy, but out of concern that they would rile up the American public against our tormentors. We can’t have that, can we? It’s just too un-multi-culti. Hijos de la gran putana.
If you’ve seen the documentary 9-11, based on footage shot by French brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, you’ve seen and heard what the first responders heard and saw as they mobilized in the lobby and the bodies of the jumpers began to litter the courtyard. It’s far worse than any mid-air image. May God curse those responsible for having forced people to choose among equally horrifying and deadly alternatives. I’m reminded of Sophie’s choice and the mind-set that compelled it. Fascist birds of a feather.
Never forget. Never forgive.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 08 26 at 02:42 PM • permalinkAgree with many above. The raw images started disappearing from broadcasts within 12 hours, the same time as the media’s usual talking heads started floating their usual bromides about it being “America’s fault” for neglecting the “root causes” of “anger.” The excuse was that they were afraid of “unduly inflaming passions.” (Who knows what those redstaters might do if they got riled up!) In fact, IIRC, there was some kind of announced agreement-- or at least common statement-- by the three American networks + CNN that they were going to stop repetition of the images for this reason. (Tried to find a reference and failed: Somebody help me here.)
And in case anyone forgets, the resulting explosion of rejection (of the MSM’s platitudes) is what kickstarted the blogosphere.
Posted by Old Grouch on 2006 08 26 at 02:53 PM • permalink#16 kae, I hope that thousands and millions of people are faced with that choice, or something very like it, and soon.
Posted by Harry Eagar on 2006 08 26 at 03:08 PM • permalinkThey’re happy to show pictures of the dead and dying when Americans kill(ed) them… or are alleged to have kill(ed)them… or might have been nearby when somebody kill(ed) them… but never never never anything that shows Americans might have a reason...
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 08 26 at 03:18 PM • permalinkI dont hold that there was a conspiracy to censor, more that there was a response to the expression of wide felt shock at watching real people die on TV.
‘Then he heard people gasping. People on the ground were gasping because people in the building were jumping. He started shooting pictures through a 200mm lens. He was standing between a cop and an emergency technician, and each time one of them cried, “There goes another,” his camera found a falling body and followed it down for a nine- or twelve-shot sequence. He shot ten or fifteen of them before he heard the rumbling of the South Tower and witnessed, through the winnowing exclusivity of his lens, its collapse …
‘…He sent the image to the AP’s server. The next morning, it appeared on page seven of The New York Times. It appeared in hundreds of newspapers, all over the country, all over the world. The man inside the frame — the Falling Man — was not identified.
‘They began jumping not long after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died. They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building’s fatal wound…
‘…For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced. Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands. They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds…
‘…Papers all over the country, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to the Memphis Commercial Appeal to The Denver Post, were forced to defend themselves against charges that they exploited a man’s death, stripped him of his dignity, invaded his privacy, turned tragedy into leering pornography. Most letters of complaint stated the obvious: that someone seeing the picture had to know who it was…’
They say you can’t complete a fall like that before passing out. I hope so.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 08 26 at 05:02 PM • permalinkI thank everyone for their comments. I have dreaded this anniversary. Five years is a long time. There have been so many deaths in this war, and I am saddened by the knowledge that it will take many, many more.
I remember watching the second plane hit, and with the impact came the certain knowledge that we were being deliberately attacked. I remember thinking, “Now we shall see.” At the time, I didn’t give any more thought to what I meant, but I have since. I wondered if we had it in us to fight the war I knew the attack meant. I wondered how much damage had been done to the American sense of life I grew up with by the New Left of my young adulthood. I thought it was extensive, and I was right. I wondered how long it would take for the shock to wear off enough for the anti-Americans to find their voice. It didn’t take long.
Other things filled out my initial thought. It isn’t necessary to go into them because we live with them every day, from articles like the above, to crescent-shaped memorials, full of Islamic significance, to our honored dead, to overt traitors and ignorant prats. The list is endless, and that’s just the public side of events.
The personal side centers on cold anger and black thoughts. And hatred. Hatred towards those who made me feel this way, and towards those principles that allow them to claim a right to my life—along with everyone else’s life—on the altar of their dissatisfaction.
Salty,
I remember watching the second plane hit, and with the impact came the certain knowledge that we were being deliberately attacked. I remember thinking, “Now we shall see.” At the time, I didn’t give any more thought to what I meant, but I have since. I wondered if we had it in us to fight the war I knew the attack meant. I wondered how much damage had been done to the American sense of life I grew up with by the New Left of my young adulthood. I thought it was extensive, and I was right. I wondered how long it would take for the shock to wear off enough for the anti-Americans to find their voice. It didn’t take long.
Yes, I had thoughts much like that at that time and on many occasions since. It seems that many have tried to put that day out of their minds over the past 5 years. That’s why we need to be reminded of what happened then constantly (and that is why the MSM refuses to do just that).
Too many want to forget their duty (or even the concept of duty)-reminders of 9/11 make that impossible. Frankly, the administration has not done a particularly good job of making sure people don’t forget.
Sorry, I couldn’t even watch more than the first 15 minutes of Flight 93. I was so fucking murderously mad that I scared myself and I had to turn it off.
At some level, most descent folks do not need continuous exposure to such images. Those among us who can distinguish between good and evil record those images and use them as the basis for what needs to be done next. Recall there are very few pictures of dead Americans from WW2. The few which were released (notably on the beach at Buna in the New Guinea campaign) were extremely controversial and did not generate an audience for more of the same.
What may be necessary is for some of our self appointed betters in the media, academia and politics to be tied in chairs, eyes propped open, and forced, Clockwork Orange-style, to witness such events over and over again until they finally “get it”.
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 26 at 07:08 PM • permalinkVOTC-The elites aren’t the complete extent of the problem. I honestly believe that there are far too many who do not recognize that the world extends beyond the end of their own nose and others who think that putting a yellow ribbon magnet on their cars fullfills their obligation to their nation.
Anyway, I had a similar reaction to United 93-I kept banging on the arm of the chair in the theater and I had to restrain myself from standing and cheering when they finally started to fight back. You should really give it another try, it’s an excellent movie.
I’ve watched Flight 93 a couple of times now. When I saw United 93 in the theater, I purposely went alone. Never before have I sat literally on the edge of my seat for an entire movie. I didn’t drink my Coke, I didn’t eat my Milk Duds. I just sat there stiff as a board, jaw clinched, tears streaming down my face punctuated by episodes of outright sobbing.
Every time I see a shot of downtown Manhattan in an old movie or TV show, I get mad all over again. On my refrigerator, I have a panoramic picture of that skyline taken years ago from the Liberty Island ferry and there it will stay. Whenever I encounter a story about a fallen soldier, I read it and I cry every time.
Each of us should do what each of us needs to do. I have no plan to let go of my grief, my anger or my hatred. If this makes me less than the person I should be, and it undoubtedly does, then so be it.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 08 26 at 07:51 PM • permalinkI know its a good one 91, and I’ll give it a go sometime, but man… I had the same reaction to Black Hawk Down, although I managed to make it through that one. SFC Shugart, CMH, was from just up the road from me in PA, so that was real painful to watch.
I also know the elites are not the extent of the problem, but they do set the tone. I know people in this very town who have beautiful houses, successful businesses, gorgeous, smart, talented, healthy kids, great jobs, and all they do is carp about the people who protect them. Yet they would never think of doing the protecting or heaven forbid, leaving the valley and going to some nasty place to kill the evil bastards perpetrating this crap.
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 26 at 07:52 PM • permalinkVOTC-since Shugart was from near you, please allow me to recommend Mike Durant’s book about the mission and his captivity.
The highlight is when Durant travels to MSG Gordon’s hometown in Maine to give a speach and what he discovers in the library there. That’s all I’ll say, except that the book is worth it just to get to that one passage if nothing else.
66. I’m on it Shipmate! I was a helo pilot, so I’m sure I will get a lot out of whatever Mike Durant has to say. Best/V
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 26 at 08:30 PM • permalinkPeople panicked. People wanted to get away from the flames, some threw themselves into the air to get away. No conscious decision involved. Just get away however you can, because nothing can be worse than burning.
I’ve been suicidal. My life prior to this one ended in suicide. I know what being suicidal is like. Those people weren’t suicidal, they were scared out of their wits.
They tried to save their lives. It ended up killing them. But it was never a conscious choice.
Posted by mythusmage on 2006 08 27 at 01:04 AM • permalinkAnd while we are at the “Never Forgets”...
We should also Never Forget that the first reaction from the Palestinian Territory was celebrations in the streets and firing guns in the air.Of course, that was until their leadership thought that such PUBLIC displays of gloating might not be very politically savvy, and so demanded that all gloating be kept in private.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2006 08 27 at 10:36 PM • permalinkHow can the Left talk of cowardly when Phat Philip Adams CANCELS his Qantas flight which will involve landing in London on September the 11th.
Stupid Alvin Purple who NEVER did a good thing,never acted a worthwhile role except to run around in his undies in the sixties like a demented dwarf on screen and now believes he is a towering figure in the piddling Aussie Film Scene.Along with Phat Adams.
TexRed we all feel deeply moved,we all were traumatised by 9/11 -Western cultures all huddled around their t.v’s,shocked and aghast..we knew we were seeing an attempt to take over the U.S and other western countries.Pity Europe still hasn’t seen it and they’ve had years to see it coming.
Deepest sympathy to families of all involved .
Going to see United 93 soon.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
Wikipedia says the photo ran only once in many American newspapers “because they received critical and angry letters from readers who felt the photo was exploitative, voyeuristic and an invasion of the faller’s privacy at the moment of death.”
If that’s true, Blundell’s take is completely wrong. They were withdrawn out of respect, not disrespect, for the people concerned. Most newspapers also have policies against an emphasising suicides - not that these 9/11 episodes constituted suicide properly understood anyway.