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Saturday, September 09, 2006
Remembering 9/11
The morning of September 11, 2001, I checked out of a motel on the west side of Tulsa, Oklahoma and headed east on I-44. I was returning from a 9 day visit with friends in Albuquerque. Driving through downtown Tulsa with the radio on, the news reported that a plane had hit one tower of the World Trade Center. I envisioned a small private aircraft; a commercial airliner hitting a building in Manhattan was beyond my imagination. A few minutes later the other tower of the WTC has been hit and I am glued to the radio, all thoughts of playing a music cassette gone.
About 11 a.m. CDT, I arrived at my mom's in Springfield, Missouri and spent much of the remainder of the day watching the images played and replayed on the television screen. I had intended to return to work in Kansas City on Sept. 13, but instead called my boss and told her I was taking the rest of the week off and working on quilts for Project Linus. It was my way of trying to help.
All Americans felt the impact of the terrible events of 9/11. Many lost loved ones at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or on Flight 93. Rescue workers were exposed to noxious chemical fumes and many now have health problems. Lives and businesses were disrupted and we no longer felt safe.
There will be many observances of and tributes to 9/11 this weekend and Monday. ABC plans to air a docudrama called "Path to 9/11" on Sunday and Monday. Quite a bit of controversy is going around the Internet about this movie. Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for President Clinton and both President Bush's has refuted a key scene in the first night of the movie.
ABC's Path to 9/11 blog addresses this controversy. The main thing to remember is that "Path to 9/11 is a movie, not a documentary. The Path to 9/11 blog says the movie states up front:
"The following dramatization...has composite and representative characters and incidents, and time compressions have been used for dramatic purposes."
In other words, the movie is based on fact, but individual events are not recreated exactly as they happened. Based on ABC's Path to 9/11 blog, I think the movie will show that both the Clinton and Bush administrations could have done more to prevent 9/11. If you only watch one of the 2 nights, you won't see how both administrations are portrayed. If you want true history, read a history book or news report.
