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Post by bjobsessed on Aug 2, 2006 12:51:33 GMT -5
But nobody needs to be told -- or shown -- what happened on 9/11. We all saw it on CNN, repeatedly. All...day....long...for days! Even though I was tired of seeing the same thing over and over again, I couldn't stop watching it. I kept hoping for a miracle. At the same time, I couldn't believe what I was seeing--that someone could do that so close to home. |
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Post by bluedelft on Aug 2, 2006 16:56:38 GMT -5
Maybe we can't put World Trade Center in the same category as movies about Vietnam. Only those who served knew what it was like over there and so their stories needed to be told, even in a fictionalized context. But nobody needs to be told -- or shown -- what happened on 9/11. We all saw it on CNN, repeatedly. CNN and all the local stations over and over again. |
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Post by housemouse on Aug 7, 2006 18:24:06 GMT -5
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Post by inuvik on Aug 10, 2006 18:15:19 GMT -5
I read all this with great interest last night. I'm not sure if I'll see the movie or not, but I am not totally against the film by any means. The review I read today says that it isn't graphic at all. They do not show either plane crashing into the towers, nor do they show the towers falling.
I think one reason I am open to seeing this film is I did not get "overloaded" on Sept. 11. My TV was in for repair, and I was working the evening shift so I didn't go in to work until 4 ET that day. I was unaware anything had happened until I got to work. My TV remained in the shop for several more weeks, and by that time they had stopped showing the footage of the plane flying into the tower.
Believe it or not, I have only seen the footage once!!! I saw it around Christmas time in one of those "year in review" news shows. I think I would feel very differently about the film if I had seen it hundreds of times like most people.
Also, my mind was occupied with a more personal situation. My grandmother had died in August. I had a ticket booked for the 16th, I believe, to fly for her imposition of ashes. I was very worried that planes still wouldn't be flying and was relieved when they started again. So in a way I had the opposite reaction--I wanted to fly and had to fly, very soon.
I think these two situations make me more agreeable to the film. But I still don't know whether I will see it or not. I didn't see the other one, but I'm more interested in seeing this than that one.
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Post by bjobsessed on Aug 12, 2006 16:59:42 GMT -5
We visited the WTC site while in NY. It was a very moving experience--one that brought me close to tears. Just to look through the fence and see the empty space and to realize what used to be there. I know we all saw it on tv a million times but seeing it in person just made it that much more real. To walk around and read the poems and tributes to lost loved ones reminded me that these people were friends, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and grandparents and that they are gone forever because of one horrific act.
We saw one man bent down praying--for what only he knows. Maybe he lost his dad or a friend. That image will stick with me for a long time and it says to me anyway that it is still fresh for many.
The visit reaffirmed for me that I do not want to see the movie. It may be tastefully done and it may focus on a heroic act, but I think they should just leave it alone for now.
Typing this now as opposed to what I typed before I left is almost bringing me to tears. The emotions were not as deep or as many as they are now that I've seen it. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live it.
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Post by bluedelft on Aug 12, 2006 20:44:09 GMT -5
We visited the WTC site while in NY. It was a very moving experience--one that brought me close to tears. Just to look through the fence and see the empty space and to realize what used to be there. I know we all saw it on tv a million times but seeing it in person just made it that much more real. To walk around and read the poems and tributes to lost loved ones reminded me that these people were friends, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and grandparents and that they are gone forever because of one horrific act. We saw one man bent down praying--for what only he knows. Maybe he lost his dad or a friend. That image will stick with me for a long time and it says to me anyway that it is still fresh for many. The visit reaffirmed for me that I do not want to see the movie. It may be tastefully done and it may focus on a heroic act, but I think they should just leave it alone for now. Typing this now as opposed to what I typed before I left is almost bringing me to tears. The emotions were not as deep or as many as they are now that I've seen it. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live it. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. Reading it has brought me close to tears. It seems lately anything I read something about 9/11 that happens. It's hard to believe that it will be five years this year. I was thinking about that this week looking at my computer and seeing the red, white and blue ribbons that I put on the computer a couple of days after 9/11. |
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Post by carl1951 on Aug 17, 2006 18:41:46 GMT -5
While in NYC, I had asked different people if they agreed with a new building be built on the site of the WTC
Everyone I asked or was asked by someone in our traveling group said NO. New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike did not want it disturbed with a new building. Everyone wanted a park or a quiet place and to leave it exactly what it is..a final resting-place. A place for reflection and inner-thoughts, or prayers.
Again, greed and money and location, location, location.
I don't think Pearl Harbor was disturbed. It was left as a memorial. What about Gettysburg? What about Aushwicz? Those are memorials and they were left as a reminder.
How can a future generation remember what has happened in a place if there is nothing to remind them of it other than a "pretty new building" made of cold, hard things.
And we're reminded, by Wash DC and every $.25 talk-show host almost everyday, to remember 9/11.
I'll sum it up in one word: Hypocrisy.
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Post by awlrite4now on Aug 18, 2006 4:46:06 GMT -5
While in NYC, I had asked different people if they agreed with a new building be built on the site of the WTC Everyone I asked or was asked by someone in our traveling group said NO. New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers alike did not want it disturbed with a new building. Everyone wanted a park or a quiet place and to leave it exactly what it is..a final resting-place. A place for reflection and inner-thoughts, or prayers. Again, greed and money and location, location, location. I don't think Pearl Harbor was disturbed. It was left as a memorial. What about Gettysburg? What about Aushwicz? Those are memorials and they were left as a reminder. How can a future generation remember what has happened in a place if there is nothing to remind them of it other than a "pretty new building" made of cold, hard things. And we're reminded, by Wash DC and every $.25 talk-show host almost everyday, to remember 9/11. I'll sum it up in one word: Hypocrisy. About Pearl Harbor: The only part left alone was the USS Arizona. The rest of the harbor and the military installations were repaired because they were of utmost strategic importance. The memorial was not built until 1962. It's a very sacred place to most who visit, yet only a small part of the area of Pearl Harbor that was damaged. About Gettysburg: quoting the National Park Service site: I would hardly call all that "just leaving it alone". There are auditoriums and exhibit halls on the site, and it does not diminish the sanctity of the grounds About Auschwitz: Some research tells me that a great deal of this was left as it was. I have not been there, and cannot tell by the photos I've seen just how much was preserved, and whether or not fees are charged to visit the site. I would like to know just how built up the area is around the camp. I'm not arguing here, just setting out some facts I looked up. There should be a memorial at the footprint of the World Trade Center. I agree with that. What I can't say is how much easement they should leave around Ground Zero to satisfy everyone. I think that is where the main problem/complaint comes around. No one alive now will ever forget 9/11. On a side note: have any of you been to the Alamo? Arguably the most sacred ground in Texas. Were you surprised to find it in the middle of San Antonio, with commerce all around? It still does not diminish the importance of the spot where Texas began its fight for freedom. After so many years, the wounds heal, and commerce encroaches. A sad fact, but true, nonetheless. |
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Post by maggiethecat on Aug 18, 2006 9:42:53 GMT -5
Excellent points, Alice.
I don't know what sort of New Yorkers were asked about their thoughts, but most people I know who live and work in NYC think that a memorial is necessary and right but the best tribute is -- and certainly was five years ago -- to get back to "normal" life. A memorial on the site was always a given. I think the problem for many New Yorkers is that the memorial proposed for the World Trade Center site is truly ugly: a bleak cement bunker that looks like a cross between a subway station and the set for a German Expressionist film. (They should have asked Maya Lin to design it.)
Those who want the entire site preserved are not being realistic. It's an emotional point of view, and one that was expressed quite often in the early days after 9/11. But we are talking about 60 acres of the most valuable real estate in the world -- and it is not about greed, it's about a vibrant working city. As Rudy Giuliani kept telling us in the weeks immediately after 9/11, if you want to help New York City, come see a play, come shop here, come here for vacation.
Dig a few feet down in New York City, or walk around the nearest corner, and you'll find a cemetery that was plowed up in the name of progress, a monument torn down to make way for a parking garage, a scene of artistic achievement or great tragedy reduced to a plaque on the side of a building. (Several blocks of buildings, two streets, and a cemetery dating back to the Federal era were destroyed to build the World Trade Center in the first place.) The past gives way to the future in New York, and always has done. You don't forget -- ever -- but you move on.
There are memorials all over New York City, from statues to "named" plazas to bronze plaques on buildings. I used to walk by the building every day that had been the scene of Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire and read the plaque. I believe a plaque was put up at the Pentagon to honor those who died on 9/11, and to me that seems simple and right. Memorials, really, are to remind people to remember . . . and no one needs to be reminded to remember 9/11.
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Post by bjobsessed on Aug 18, 2006 9:51:26 GMT -5
Well said, Maggie.
I saw at least one of those memorial plaques outside of what was on the fence surrounding the site. It was plaque honouring the firemen who had died from ladder company 10 right next to the site itself.
Well I agree that there should be some type of 'main' memorial, it is those little ones that touch me even more because they are personal to the group that erected it. Not that I will forget, but it is a reminder to me anyway, that we didn't loose 2500-300 people that day, we lost 2500-3000 individuals--each different from the next. Somehow, somewhere they need to be remembered that way by someone as well as collectively by us all.
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Post by bjobsessed on Aug 23, 2006 23:45:11 GMT -5
I just saw on CNN that they're going to show unedited footage of 9/11 "as it happened" on Sept 11 all...day...long from something like 9:30 am till midnight--if I heard it right. I know I'll hear it again. I know what channel I'm NOT watching that day. I don't need or want to be reminded of all that and I'm sure the families don't either.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2006 8:09:57 GMT -5
I'm still in the position of refusing to see that movie - I don't need to, honestly.
And I've read all the comments and I agree that re-building is the highest of tributes.
Having gone back down there twice for the first time in five years, I can honestly say that I am ready to return there. When I was offered jobs in the past, I refused them because of the location, but no more.
It's time to return to where I started 20 years ago.
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