September 12, 2005
Flight 93
I watched the Discovery Channel's The Flight That Fought Back last evening. It was quite riveting, but did it strike anybody else as odd that Todd Beamer was barely mentioned at all? (I recollect only hearing his name once and none of his surviving family were interviewed.)
This seemed strange, seeing how his name has become synonymous with the passenger counter-attack against the Al Qaeda bad guys. In fact, I'd never even heard of any of the other passengers prior to watching the show last evening. I can only suppose that perhaps Beamer's family must not have wanted to have anything to do with it.
UPDATE: BTW, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
UPDATE DEUX: More praise for Flight That Fought Back from Jen and Sheila. I must say that my chief emotion after watching it (and in general reflection on 9/11) is not sorrow, it's still pure rage.
UPDATE TROIS: Flight 93 Memorial Design points straight to Mecca? Whiskey Tango Foxtrotting Foxtrot?
Posted by Robert at September 12, 2005 08:18 AM | TrackBackJeremy Glick, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Louis Nacke, Sandy Bradshaw ... all of them contributed. Todd Beamer might have said what turned out to be the catch-phrase - but who cares about that. Maybe his family didn't want anything to do with it. We are lucky we have Todd Beamer's words - said so calmly, so ready for whatever what was about to come ... a real rallying cry, but I personally always thought that Glick and Bingham and perhaps Nacke were more on the forefront of planning the attack.
Posted by: red at September 12, 2005 10:12 AMYeah, I noticed that too. We were almost a full hour into the show before his name got mentioned. I have a feeling that Lisa Beamer refused to get involved - not so much because she had problems with the program, but probably because she's trying to move on with her life and manage her children. People know what Todd said and did - we won't forget his part on that day.
Posted by: jen at September 12, 2005 10:18 AMYes, and I mean no criticism. It's just that on my mental file-o-fax, the words "Beamer" and "Flight 93" go together and it was simply odd not to see that here.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at September 12, 2005 10:21 AMI agree. And I agree with your update - I shed quite a few tears while watching the family members recount their part of the story, but I was left with a renewed anger that their heroic actions were even necessary.
Posted by: jen at September 12, 2005 11:07 AMFlight 93 was a failier for the terrorists
Posted by: spurwing plover at September 18, 2005 05:18 PM
