I have seen a ton of movies in my 22 years, but there has never truly been one that has stuck in my mind longer than a half hour, and not one that made me feel compelled to write. Tonight, just because, Shaun and I watched United 93. I'm glad I saw it for a number of reasons.
9/11 will always be a black mark on the history of our country, not one to be ever remembered fondly. It was a day that may have saved us though. I was too young to really understand what was happening, I was only 11. I could never have fathomed the social and political implications of a thing like this. There was no understanding for a kid in that situation. It looked bad, that was all we knew as kids because we were home watching it on television.
Now, the older we get the more it can be appreciated when we relive the moments. I think the thing that strikes me the most is how angry we became as a country. You don't think of a country as a solitary unit, but in this case that is exactly what we got. It didn't matter if you were from New York City or from California, you were shocked, shaken, and pissed.
It mobilized us as a country to realize that we were "one". That our state's borders didn't need to keep us separated. While many will look at 9/11 as the event that made us socially aware and able to come together; I see it in other ways too.
I think in some ways it has made the United States government turn for the better. Granted, we are not looking so great right now...but that is due to a number of other issues. However, we got stricter which believe it or not, is something I think we needed at that point. If we had continued on our, "we are the best and strongest country in the world parade", for much longer I think we'd be in a far worse place than we are currently. We were arrogant, we felt like we couldn't be touched, and when in fact we were proven wrong, it may have brought us a certain humility that we had been lacking.
In my own opinion we are hearing more about charity, and other country's major problems and how there are people out there finding a solution much more than we ever used to. It may never be enough, but we have become more sympathetic to others in and out of our country.
I feel this even just tonight, as I watched the Rachel Maddow Show, and they were commenting on the politicization of the shooting in Colorado. They said not to politicize it event, it wouldn't be right. Ezra Klein spoke about how we as a country are mourning the event, and for a moment I thought, "The people in Colorado should be mourning, not everyone else." My thought process being, it happened to a relatively small community not everyone. But then I thought, of course we'd all be mourning. Not because we lost someone, but because once again there was a flaw in the system and we were showing strength, not weakness.
We as a country were showing this community that we understand and see that you are hurting and scared and we are here standing behind you. A part of me feels like 9/11 helped us become that country. Would it be better if it never happened? Of course. Then again, if it hadn't of happened where would we be today?
United 93
