A rchive Date
[ 13-10-2001 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/sa.html
Enough is enough
Respecting the reality of 9/11
By RACHEL SA -- Toronto Sun
October 13, 2001
I was sitting in the Sun library doing school work when suddenly the room was filled with the sound of frantic, terrified voices. I looked up from my papers and saw that the TV in the corner was on CNN (truly - has there been any other channel in recent weeks?). The volume had been turned way up. Transcripts and recordings of 911 calls, made from Ground Zero as the World Trade Center towers came down on Sept. 11 were being aired. The words of the screaming man scrolled across the screen so that viewers could make better sense of his screams (he was occasionally incoherent with terror) while in the background the image of one of the towers coming down was played over and over again in slow motion.
Any images from the attack on the U.S. usually cause a welling up of the same emotions within me: heartache, horror and anger. But I felt something else this time, something I had hoped would never emerge in the face of this tragedy: disgust. In my mind, it was just too much. It was patently unnecessary to broadcast the screams of the poor man who tried to gasp for air as the cloud of dust and debris from the fallen towers apparently enveloped him. But what was worse than the perceived sensationalism was that old feeling of being disconnected that resurfaced as I watched the broadcast. Such feelings have no place in these times.
The attacks of Sept. 11 are the first news event of my generation that seemed destined to avoid becoming a spectacle. It seems impossible that this could be reduced to an overdone event, that it could be endlessly made fun of and have its true meaning obscured by one too many needless newscasts with absolutely nothing new to report or by tiresome sketches on Saturday Night Live. The eternal coverage of such events as the Elian Gonzales debacle and the absurd, overblown (insert your own litany of adjectives here) O.J. Simpson trial come easily to mind.
Beyond the usual circus
But the events of 9/11 are different. They are beyond those now seemingly farcical media circuses of the past and they must remain so. For so many of us, it was the first time that we experienced an event in its pure form. It seemed free of any residue from the media that filtered it to us. This was not just another news story or a radio report of some distant event, heard and dismissed from the safety of our once insulated North American cocoon - this was reality.
In the beginning, the shock and outrage were still so fresh in our minds. We were still wounded and shocked and terrified - unable to conceive of ever perceiving the events as anything but a too harsh reality.
Now, only a month later, for a world that has been "changed forever" some things seem to have the potential to remain the same. Last Sunday, as I paused during Thanksgiving dinner preparations to watch CNN as the bombing of military targets began in Afghanistan, I felt a disquieting sense of deja vu. The hazy night shots of white dots streaking across the sky seemed identical to my hazy memories of the bombing images from the Gulf war. Those remain just that: images - disconnected television shots that had nothing to do with me.
Does this mean that we stop reporting?
Of course not.
But neither does it mean that the public needs to be bashed over the head with blatant, redundant images. This was not a murder in a distant province or country that we must have thrown in our faces only to then connect to it for a moment or two before going on with our lives. We all lived and continue to live through this, we know the horror of it - there is no need for overdone productions, music queues and taped transcripts with slow-mo background images.
That said, when ranting in this vein to colleagues and loved ones earlier this week, an important counterpoint was presented. Certain stories and images, perhaps deemed sensational by some, are helpful. The tales of heroism and humanity that continue to emerge from the WTC - such as the stories of last-moment calls home to loved ones before the towers went down. Let's stay in that vein. Let's remember and mourn the human losses and celebrate the examples of human goodness and let's never forget that this is reality. It deserves our respect.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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