If you were watching the convention coverage last night, you may have seen the grotesquely inappropriate 9/11 “tribute” video that was run at the Republican National Convention. In a video of 2:49 in length, 2:07 of it was spent showing slow-motion footage of one of the aircraft hitting the World Trade Center, the collapse of the towers, and smoking ruin of the Pentagon.
I lost family and friends in the September 11th attacks. Deep down when I see video of the towers burning, I can’t help but to think of them, or the hundreds upon hundreds of others who were senselessly slaughtered for doing nothing more than going to work, or visiting family, or taking a vacation. When I close my eyes, I can still hear the wails of the sirens from police cars and firetrucks that had been crushed by falling debris. I remember sitting in my Uncle’s empty apartment next to a telephone that never rang, watching television coverage of events that were occurring not two miles away. I still remember watching Dan Rather, a pillar of integrity in television news for 30-plus years, breaking down into tears on David Letterman and finally feeling like it was okay to weep.
These images have been used and abused by the Republican party in their attempts to scare the American people into voting for them, and in the process they have sucked the humanity out of the imagery. When you see the footage of the North Tower collapsing, you don’t think of the thousands of people who perished. You don’t feel the pain of the families who lost loved ones, of the wives who lost husbands, or the mothers and fathers who lost sons and daughters. You don’t feel sorrow for the people on the airplanes who sat in their chairs, calling home to tell their families that they loved them for one last time.
When you see that footage now, you feel the worst thing of all: Nothing.
If you were watching the convention coverage on MSNBC last night, you saw Keith Olbermann take the initiative and do what CNN, ABC, and most assuredly FOX News did NOT do. Keith Olbermann tried his best to humanize that which had become little more than stock footage for Republican shock ads. For that, I thank him.
Filed under: John McCain, Media, MSNBC, Republicans Tagged: | 9/11, John McCain, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, Republican National Convention
