JEO's parents just finished watching Flight 93. Though cinematically unlikely to win any awards, or for that matter any acting or dialogue awards at the Academy Awards cermonies - if for no other reason than for not towing the Hollywood leftist party line of tolerance and misinformation, I found this movie to be like a crisp, cool, clear day after walking though the fog of media disinformation on all fronts - left, right and rear. Though that was a poorly worded sentence, I do believe it gets the point across.
This film was good because it wasn't preachy and it didn't try to show a side of Islam that talking heads always seem to want to insist exists but to which even anti-US media seem to have great difficulty in showing. It seemed to be just a portrayal of the events that occured from the central vantage point of UAL Flight 93. This produced a much more sound and amazingly powerful message. We all know how it ends but I kept finding myself rooting for the passengers as they struggled to take over the plane. I even found myself hoping that they would gain control and somehow find a safe place to land the plane. But my wishful thinking is based upon fantasy, much like the wishful thinkers that put a happy face on Islam, and the truly evil actions of the adherants to the "Religion of Peace" were the reality that day. For those who believe that the core teachings of Islam are that of peace, they may wish to read a searchable translation of the Quran which I have linked here for your convenience: http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/
I marvel at how I have become numbed these 5 years since that surrealistic day. New York is a long way away from the West Coast. Though I have been in the World Trade Center towers and the subway station below it, it is difficult to place the gravity of those tumbling towers and the thousands murdered that day into a physical framework other than the synaptic, etherial one that exists in my head and in print. It is strangely difficult to accept that those landmarks no longer exist even though I have seen the photographic evidence which merely shows a gaping hole. I have gone my way and continue life much unchanged from what it was before 9/11. I don't think of fire raining from the sky on the little hamlet which I live.
A film like Flight 93 is good in that it is a clarion call to never forget what our enemy has done and will likely seek to do again. I was skeptical when such a bit of national outpouring towards never forgetting 9/11 gushed forth. I have little faith in our ADD culture as to our ability to remember anything that takes more than 1 hour to resolve. But there is the ability to remember if we are reminded. I would say that hardly anyone who lived through the event or has some education doesn't remember Pear Harbor. I didn't even have to be there to remember it - we are reminded through our culture in the movies we watch, the books we read, the hours of the History Channel that we watch. There was no doubt as to who the enemy was, that they were a threat to our country and way of life, and that every effort needed to be expended to defeat that enemy - whatevery it took. Sadly, we are up against an enemy that can hide at will and does. One of their greatest offensive weapons against us is our own ADD. I guess the second would be the irrational hatred of any President Bush initiative which is often successful in dividing us as a nation and our response to the threat. That translates to a reluctance to acknowledge that we have a definate enemy and that they are a threat to this country which leads to a diminished will to do whatever it takes to win the battle against a slippery but dangerous enemy. It would seem that to really truly feel that we are in a battle for the very existence of our society is either hyperbole or an exageration only to be entertained by right wing extremists such as myself. Easier to go with the media flow than to observe fact and make informed choices based upon those facts. The Quran is a good starting place. This picture is another:
Perhaps our pluralistic culture would like to cut throught the haze with this fascinating on-line media gallery and ask themselves whether all world views are equal. Do you hear that? Yes - it's the cliche response "what about the Spanish Inquisition?" A bad time indeed. Or wait, how about The Crusades? What were Christians thinking? Well, those were bad times. Those keen debate club members and media pundits who like to bring up these historical events might be interested to know the context of those terrible times and about the men in power who used those events to their advantage and what was going on in Christendom that led up to those despotic episodes. Oh, and I was wondering, whatever happened to mostly Christian North Africa after the 8th century? Oh well, no matter. They probably got lost in the media haze that blew in with the "Religion of Peace."
I have no doubt that there are many peace-loving and peaceful Muslims living in our world today. But could it be because they are nominal in their faith that they are such? I mean, when someone threatens your life, the lives of your family members, and your means to make a living unless you convert to Islam, does that motivate someone from their heart to be a Muslim? Perhaps I am ignorant on this point. When someone really believes in something to the very core of their being they are able to exhibit it when faced with great peril to their person or the threat of loss of life. The people in Islam that seem to believe this way are busy strapping pyrotechnics to their bodies, flying planes into immovable objects, and generally causing great hate and discontent. The Muslims that aren't doing these things are being persecuted and exterminated by the heart-led ilk of their brethren.
It is the same with Christiandom. Many nominal Christians don't hold to the core teachings of charity, fidelity, selflessness, humility, the acceptance of Jesus as God and Lord of their lives. But they, like nominal Muslims, do not know what the written word that they have been given says about these things and the preeminence they are to take in the life of the believer. I know I am crazy, but given freedom of choice and knowledge of the authorative written word of the "Religion of Peace" and its true teachings - few but those who thought that they could be the power brokers in that religion would choose it willingly.
We are in a war which is a clash of world views. One has freedom at its core the other submission. I want my child to live in the one where he may choose the path he is to walk - freely. This, by definition, means that I must allow him to make his own choices in life. It is the choices that he makes for himself that will be the choices he will be willing to die for - if they are good choices worth dying for. That carries a bit of risk with it as I am not assured that he will choose the God of his father and mother. I pray that he will and I will teach him that way but in the end I have no guarantees. I will fight for that right with whatever tools are placed at my disposal - even if it's just a rant on this little read blog. I will fight to prevent any religion from forcing me or my family to choose it or death. Melodramatic perhaps, but may we never forget the reality of the world that we live in today. Not the wishful world that we want to live in that hasn't existed since long before 9/11.
I don't know about you, but when I look at the picture of my son, the haze lifts and I can see quite clearly.
