Shop Talk

The American public probably wasn’t ready for the 2006 debut of two controversial movies about the 9/11 tragedy, but like it or not, they came and the nation was forced to once again confront a horrific past.

The first, United 93, was a “real time account” or speculation of the events leading up to United Flight 93’s crash into a field in Shanksville, Pa., after ordinary passengers sacrificed their lives to thwart a terrorist plot that planned to divert the hijacked plane to Washington, D.C.

United 93 was met with much controversy, particularly in New York City and Southwestern Pennsylvania. After bearing witness to two horrific incidents on the same day five years ago, many could not fathom the thought of reliving such atrocities even if they were only realized through Hollywood magic.

The film opened to some protest, but was not yanked from theaters. The father of one victim proclaimed that while the film was difficult to watch, it was something that Americans needed to see. A general thought was that portions, if not all, of the film’s profits should be donated to 9/11 charities. This indeed happened on May 3, 2006 when Universal Pictures, United 93’s distributor, made good on a pledge of 10 percent of opening profits and cut a check for $1.15 million for the Families of Flight 93 charity. (As of June 29, 2006, Universal donated an additional $250,000 to the charity).

The second film, World Trade Center, opened on Aug. 9, 2006, a little more than a month before the five-year anniversary of 9/11. Based on the true story of two police officers who survived beneath the wreckage of the collapsed towers, the movie debut seemed to be much quieter compared to that of its predecessor.

The producers of this film also pledged to donate 10 percent of the opening profits to charity. Four entities were the recipient of $2.6 million. Half went to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation while the other half was equally split between the three remaining charities.

While thinking about this post and crunching the numbers, I had originally wrote that the movies donated a combined 20 percent of profit. I stopped myself when I realized that I had forgotten a few key words: of the opening profits.

When it comes down to it, the donations from each movie actually amount to less than 5 percent of a combined domestic box office gross of $87.8 million. (WTC is still in theaters).

Is a contribution of $4 million enough to count as a good deed on behalf of the movie studios? Yes and No.

As harsh as the reality is, the studios didn’t have to part with a dime. Why are movies really made? We can argue all day that they tell stories, create art, and so on. They do two things: entertain and more importantly, turn a profit. Neither movie studio was obligated to make a commitment to donate before each movie release. Perhaps they felt it was their patriotic duty to chip in or maybe they feared boycott of future movies if they didn’t attempt to make up for the negative backlash. I don’t work for either studio, so I don’t know.

On the other hand, to ask people to pay for a ticket to relive a traumatic experience is asking a lot. The nation is still obviously reeling from a tragedy that is now five years old, but still fresh in so many minds. Other than to recoup costs, why should studios profit from a catastrophic event such as 9/11? The act seems low, immoral and cheapens the memory of those who lost their lives. Then again, it’s like asking every studio to donate all or portions of their profits for every historical event they remake. It’s not that it can’t be done - it WON’T be done.

The $4 million donation certainly would not make up for reawakening painful memories, nor bring any of the victims back. I’m not sure if all the money in the world could make up for what thousands of people had to go through.

Even if all the proceeds had been donated, would people still have been satisfied? The answer is, probably not. Some have argued that the 9/11 movies are ones that should never have been made. We must keep one thing in mind, however. The 9/11 movies aren’t the first movies to open old wounds and they certainly won’t be the last.

Photo is property of timesunion.com.

The still highly visible remnants of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath in the Gulf Coast makes it seem as if it were only yesterday that the hurricane roared ashore, yet here we are one full year later still trying to sort through the mess and rebuild as a nation.

One year ago …

• We saw the suffering on our television sets and personal computers.
• We sent supplies and rescue workers to help.
• We opened our wallets and gave.
• We opened our homes and hearts to evacuees.
• We assembled teams to aid with the cleanup and distribute supplies.

One year later, we still find ourselves doing the same.

It seemed as if the destruction that Katrina wrought was most apparent in the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans. The reality of a powerful hurricane striking the city would be devastating, weather experts had long warned. With levees designed to withstand only a less powerful hurricane, it was only a matter of time.

We’ve witnessed the broken lines of communication through all levels of government in dealing with the disaster. I don’t have to regurgitate the facts … we all know what happened. That miscommunication still exists, however, as New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin noted recently that recovery was still moving at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile, other levels of government seem to think that the recovery effort is going well.

Approximately 66% of 1,000 adults surveyed by Rasmussen Reports share Nagin’s sentiment that recovery efforts are indeed going too slow. The survey recorded significant difference of opinion between Democrats and Republicans in regard to recovery efforts, cost and future disaster preparation. That survey’s findings are available here.

We could say that the numbers don’t lie, but this is only a small portion of the population. We can only assume that if a majority of the 1,100 respondents felt this way that the percentage would be about the same for an expanded survey.

It has been said that the government would be better prepared the next time a natural disaster hits. What evidence do we have of this? Personally, I don’t feel so reassured that this will happen given the mismanagement of the situation by the government’s emergency response team. Only time will tell, I suppose, but I really hope FEMA’s team is hard at work crafting a new crisis management plan in the meantime.

Mostly accurate which makes it kind of eerie.

Your Birthdate: February 26
You lucked out in the skills to succeed in almost any arena. 

Put you in almost any business or classroom, and you’ll rise to the top.

You’re driven and intense, but you also know when to kick back and cooperate.

Your ability to adapt to almost any situation is part of what’s going to make you a success.

Your strength: Your attention to detail

Your weakness: You can be a little too proud of your successes

Your power color: Turquoise

Your power symbol: Arrow pointing up

Your power month: August

http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanquiz/

I miss my laptop. It is currently at a repair facility in California awaiting a new backlight for the monitor.

Hewlett-Packard has a friendly technical support staff, even if it did take us 50 minutes on the phone to diagnose the problem when it had only taken me three to look it up on my brother’s computer. Ah well. The tech was just doing his job. He was patient even as I fumbled and read him the wrong numbers. OK, so I don’t find myself calling tech. support that often. I like to figure things out for myself.

Now that it’s gone, I feel like a lost little kitten because I have everything saved on the drive WITHOUT a backup disk. I had to leave a note to remind them not to reformat the computer. I would seriously cry if I lost everything.

In an age of recalls (Dell & Apple), it’s nice to know that my little HP is doing alright. Nevermind my current problem. It could be worse. Not that a battery recall would be the most horrific thing, but eh, it still could be worse.

My only gripe right now (besides the whole ‘don’t erase my files’ thing) is the shipping date, Sept. 5. I really hope it doesn’t take that long to replace the part. Then again, the date could just be an estimate for a ’worst case scenario’ type of deal. I ordered my laptop last September and received it well before its estimated build date. Perhaps I shall find myself lucky again.

Until then, I shall wait and try to conjure everything from memory. Ouch.

Kudos to HP and its tech. support team for providing an overall decent service. (So far)!

I’m alive … ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

OK, bad “Frankenstein” reference, but … I realize I’ve let this blog go dormant. I’ve been neglecting a lot of things due to recent events. I have a few posts still in draft status and I really need to catch up on reading. Argh.

Is it possible to hit the rewind button on life?