Gorgeous went out of town to a conference this weekend.
That is always a bit of a bummer. But I try to make the best of it. I took the opportunity to watch the movie Flight 93.
I knew Gorgeous didn’t want to watch it, “It’s too depressing.”
And I understand where she’s coming from. But at the same time I think it is important that we remember what went on that day. So I watched it while she was out of town.
The moving was incredibly powerful. I’m not a weepy kind of guy, but even I found my self welling up at the way the movie depicted the resolve of those heroic passengers on that plane. Apparently they pretty much knew there was little hope of surviving the day. Yet they chose to take action to make the best of their horrible situation.
I thought the movie did a good job not going overboard into hype or patriotism. Because there were no survivors the movie creators obviously had to fill in some gaps. They may or may not have gotten things exactly the way they happened.
What they did do is focus on the phone conversations that the passengers had with others on the ground. The resulting effect of this approach is incredibly powerful. And it limits the amount of speculation that they had to delve into.
I highly recommend the movie if you ever get a chance to see it.
On another note, I found a must read article called One Arab’s Apology. Check out what the author has to say. I originally found it here at the New York Post.
I hope we see more of that sentiment well up from Muslims about what is going on.
In a related note, what about the hubbub surrounding the Pope?
Here is what he originally said.
Here is how Muslim’s are responding.
So, the Pope quotes some guy from back in 1391 who points out that the founder of the Muslim religion had some issues like the fact that he commanded that his religion be spread by killing and violence. And apparently today’s Muslims are so offended by the Pope quoting a guy from over 600 years ago that their response is killing and violence.
Um, doesn’t that pretty thoroughly illustrate the point of the comment in the first place?
And the best part is the Pope’s speech really wasn’t about slamming Muslims at all. (Not that the leader of a religion should have to apologize for attempting to explain why he feels his beliefs are superior to others anyway. That’s the business he’s in, for Pete’s sake!) He was really pointing out the problem we have today because reason has attempted to divest itself from the spiritual and philosophical.
Even the apparently offending quote was used to illustrate the difficulty between religion and violence in general.
I don’t get the how the response that is being generated is at all reasonable or acceptable.
