United 93 - the Movie

Sunday, September 10, 2006 5:17 PM
Dear reader, as I said earlier, I was going to watch United 93. I rented them from a local video rental store (more of our economic growth job potentials), and thankfully, the weather has cooled so I could open my windows and let the wind blow and cool me off, figuratively and liteally. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it, just so you have a good point of view of what happened outside of what the media reported. I watched the A&E version as well, and both were very similiar expect the big screen version gives you more of a fly on the wall look which was a nice change. God Bless those passengers who found the courage to fight for themselves and for the country, for they knew the Islamic Fascist on board had intentions of a suicide mission. I know our airports are supposed to be doing more 'characteristic profiling', but the manning level to properly conduct such surveillence is way below an adequate level. The average 'screener' is supposed to doing that job plus check the baggage and get everyone through happily on time. That is UnSat. Our airports should adopt a higher profile program as the Israelis have. It would save Grandma much needless embarrassment by having properly trained personnel on site. This program would have ID'ed those hijackers by their actions, which the movie portrayed accurately from the writers doing their research by reviewing security camera footage, and security officers would have pulled them off to the side for some quick questions, and history may have been different today. I have the radio on, and ABC News just had a story about musicians not being able to bring their expensive instruments on board, which get handled like the rest of the luggage, tossed. I've worked an airport before, the pressure on the luggage handlers is tremendous to load and unload tons of over stuffed, non-essential crap that people haul around. No joke...I've seen suitcases full of nothing but shoes, and only one pair worn on the trip. Is this common sense traveling?? This isn't just a woman thing, I've been guilty myself of over packing, but no more. Back to United 93. It showed the huge gap in communication between the military and FAA, the huge lack of communication and prior planning on our politicians and military leaders all of those years and Administrations - Republican and Democrat - prior to 9/11. Only four jet aircraft to protect the East coast of the USA that day. That is a very scary reality which I hope has been corrected. Go rent it, watch it, discuss it with your friends, and remember for those passengers and their families, it's the least you can do for what they did.