Remembering Tragedy

I have some issues with movies that are releasing currently.

First of all is World Trade Center. I’ve listened to news coverage of the movie, and of the reactions, both positive and negative, to Stone’s new film, the second about that fateful day when they came and knocked our towers down. I see the value in, as one person stated, creating a memorial to the event while the memories are still fresh in our minds. I’ve listened to many, many of my own friends say that they’re just not ready for this yet.

Now there is a television movie called Surviving Katrina on the Discovery Channel. My wife and I had the same reaction…we rolled our eyes at the commercial.

9-11 and Katrina were horrific tragedies…one was man-made, one was natural. I’m not attempting to compare or equate the two in any way by any method or any quantity other than to say that, in both events, lives were lost, hearts were broken, and lives were changed forever. Both are scars on the souls of those who lived through them, nightmares in their dreams, flashbacks during their days. In some way or another, both were undoubtedly spiritual journeys and sources of questions about God and evil for all of us. Certainly they were for me.

As an artist, I understand commemorating these events.

As an American, I cringe when I hear either one referred to.

In any case, I question whether this is true artistic reflection, or whether they are capitalizing on past tragedies for financial reasons. It concerns me.

Will I see either one? I have to leave that undecided for now.

2 Comments

  1. I have a poem for you. At the risk of looking like I’m tooting my own horn, I want to share a poem I wrote on 9.11.06, struggling with media’s exploitation and people’s obliviousness.

    Five Years

    five years
    seems so short
    so dense
    so much meant
    so much passed
    so little done
    so much done

    somehow we live
    past each day
    and bury
    our fear
    our past
    our terrror
    somewhere deep
    in our hearts

    with every beat
    we drown
    the loss
    the burden
    in crashing,
    pulsing waves
    of pretended ignorance
    real ignorance
    drunken revelry
    and sober revelry
    killing brain cells
    either way

    eventually
    that sin is
    but a dim
    red heat
    ever seeking
    an escape from
    the prison we have
    placed it in

    the light
    finding cracks
    in your walls
    until we hastily
    mix the cement
    of dissent
    and corruption
    and wait
    impatiently
    for it’s permanence
    to settle in
    our minds
    pausing
    waiting for another
    shooting pain,
    relaxing when
    it doesn’t come

    it always shocks
    when it comes
    a photo
    a book
    a quote
    the walls tumble
    the dam breaks
    and down we fall

    we regain control
    and eventually
    the red hot
    burns dim and
    soft and
    hardly hurts
    anymore

    and finally
    that emptiness
    that reality
    becomes
    null
    naught
    history

    and we forget
    even five years

    later

    ** In retrospect, I was in a little bit of a pensive, melancholy mood. The poem is a bit melodramatic and maybe not helpful, but I read the post, thought of the poem, and had to go dig it up out of an old notebook to share.

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