Sunday, May 07, 2006

George Will On "Flight 93"

The New York Times, wonderfully in character, has managed to worry about the movie's "politics of heroism": Is the movie sufficiently "inclusive"? That is, did it violate some egalitarian nicety by suggesting that perhaps not all passengers were equally heroic?
Inexplicably, the Times did not fault the movie for ethnic profiling: All the hijackers are portrayed as young, fervently devout Islamic males. Report Greengrass to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
In a movie as spare and restrained as its title, the only excess is the suggestion, itself oblique, that the government responded even more confusedly that morning than was to be expected. Most government people, like the rest of us, were in the process of having their sense of the possible abruptly and radically enlarged.
Going to see "United 93" is a civic duty because Samuel Johnson was right: People more often need to be reminded than informed. After an astonishing 56 months without a second terrorist attack, this nation perhaps has become dangerously immune to astonishment. The movie may quicken our appreciation of the measures and successes - many of which must remain secret - that have kept would-be killers at bay.
The editors of National Review were wise to view "United 93" in the dazzling light still cast by a Memorial Day address, "The Soldier's Faith," delivered in 1895 by a veteran of Ball's Bluff, Antietam and other Civil War battles. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said why understanding that faith is important:
"In this snug, over-safe corner of the world . . . we may realize that our comfortable routine is no eternal necessity of things, but merely a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous untamed streaming of the world, and in order that we may be ready for danger. . . . Out of heroism grows faith in the worth of heroism."
The message of the movie is: We are all potential soldiers. And we all may be, at any moment, at the war's front, because in this war the front can be anywhere.
The hinge on which the movie turns are 13 words that a passenger speaks, without histrionics, as he and others prepare to rush the cockpit, shortly before the plane plunges into a Pennsylvania field. The words are: "No one is going to help us. We've got to do it ourselves."
Those words not only summarize this nation's situation in today's war, but also express a citizen's general responsibilities in a free society.
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Good thing you do not stray into the movie-reviewing biz very often, George, although sticking it to the Times was worth wadding through the remainder.

The Facts: After the usual stay-in-your-seats-everything-will-be-just-fine orders from airline personnel, several members of Flight 93 decided to rush the cockpit. The door was secured, and no one knows if they breeched it. That they at least tried to do something passes for heroism these days, and I say that without rancor, or belittlement.

It is not known if their actions in any way caused the airplane to crash before reaching the target. Or, as a salute to the real world, WE don't know. Military personnel from around the country have avowed that the aircraft was shot down, but until the government spills the real beans that's just another "maybe" and nothing more.

5 comments:

Lemuel Calhoon said...

Wasn't the plane seen by an eyewitness on the ground just moments before the crash flying inverted and heading down at a steep angle with no trailing smoke and no sign of external damage?

Fits said...

By several, from what I understand. And they all appeared to be reading from the same page, or so I'm told. The more I seek, the more bs turns up.

Cookie..... said...

Interesting...thats the first time I've heard that "Military Personnel" say it was shot down...how the hell did I miss that?

Not only have we become "dangerously immune"...but I'm seeing an awful lot of complacency as well....

Cookie..... said...

P.S. Judas Priests Fits...I missed visiting you for one day and you've got a ton of posts...you been a busy man.....

Fits said...

Yeah, all of this time gone by and they haven't hit us again, so wadda we do? Forget and fight over what the Memoriall should be, as if the war against islam was over and done with.

And yeah, with this cable modem it's a snap. Takes me a couple minutes to type and wham, it's posted. With dialup I had to wait so frickin long it was boring.