Last night I saw United 93 and I was totally blown away by it. At first, like many people I know, I felt this film was too soon. I also thought that this film was part of the right wing media machine and that it was put out there to keep people full or fear. I was totally wrong on all accounts.
What Paul Greengrass has done is made a film that speaks about 2 stories from September 11th. One story is the one that everyone has read about. It is the story of the brave people on United 93, who fought back against the terrorists and saved the capitol building in Washington D.C. This part of the film is brilliantly done.
The second part of the film, the part that no one is talking about, is about the total lack of governmental organization that was in place on Sept. 11th. Mr. Greengrass brilliantly shows how all of our government organizations were totally blind sided and unprepared for this. There was no structure in place to deal with anything like this. The most painful part about this breakdown in our government is that the president could not be gotten to. Scene after scene go by with each government organization being put on hold because they needed word from the president on whether to do something or not.
The film made me cry a number of times, but nothing was as painful as watching our government workers trying to get a hold of the president to get an answer as to what they should do.
We all know what Mr. Bush was doing that day....
I sympathize greatly with every government worker who had to deal with the impossible task of terrorists hi-jacking airplanes and turning them into missiles. I don't blame any of them for what happened. Each of them tried their best in what was the most extraordinary of circumstances. But what I asked myself constantly during the viewing of this film was, 'Where was our leader?'.
Thanks to the brave passengers on United 93, not our government, our capitol and white house are still standing.
Seeing the total breakdown of our government in this film reminded me of another total breakdown of the Bush white house. That being Katrina.
Just like the passengers on United 93 it is American citizens, not the government, who are saving the day down there now.
When I was down there right after the storm, there was very little government prescence anywhere. Everyday I went to places in New Orleans to give out food and water and I was the first person that these people had gotten anything from. Even on the last day I was there, almost 6 weeks after the storm, I found a neighborhood who had not been helped yet.
I don't know what needs to be done to change all of this but I think some new leadership at the top might help.
I invite all huffpost readers who read this entry to respond with any other government breakdowns you can think of. Not just ones from republicans but also democrats. Maybe by continuing to raise these issues our leaders will take notice and make a change.