Shane EvansEveryone remembers where they were when they heard the news of 9/11. With the five year anniversary come and gone, the memories of the day are still vivid in our minds. Mostly thanks to the media and the resurfacing of footage and photographs. Two 9/11 “memorial” movies have popped up over the past year; “Untied 93” and “The World Trade Center.” A day that seems so raw in the hearts of many Americans is seen as just a moneymaker in Hollywood.
I live in a place where we consider our self “New Jerseyians” but the only way to explain where you live is “a half hour outside Manhattan.” I live in a place where teachers had to down play the incidents on 9/11 during the school day because so many students had parents in the Towers. Athletic events were cancelled for the week because too many athletes were affected. I can remember the smell of debris in the air days later. Take a short drive up the hill, there were the buildings burning as clear as day. We didn’t need the news to commentate 9/11; we were living it.
For people in the area I live in, 9/11 is still something people cope with everyday. There is a hole in the skyline I remember that will never be replaced. Getting through the day is difficult enough for the families of the victims but Hollywood does not seem to be making it any easier. Is it moral for proprietors of these films to be benefiting from one of our country’s greatest tragedies?
With such an emphasis on media and entertainment in our world today, the thin line is blurred between being sensitive and being entertaining. There are other ways pay homage to those who lost their lives and those who risked their’s to save others. Making Americans relive the day scene by scene is not the way to go about it. But maybe out in Hollywood, 9/11 was just another news story.
Whether it is service men over seas, a hole in the skyline or a hole in their heart, five years later, Americans are still living the repercussions of a post 9/11 world. Five years is too soon and maybe 10 or 20 is too. We all have our own level of sensitivity. I pay my respects in my own way and buying a movie ticket is not going to be one of them.
