On September 11th and Profanity
On September 11th and Profanity
Tuesday, September 12. 2006
I was reading one of my "geek" forums (as Laura calls them), and read a thread inviting comments on other people's 9/11 experience, and then also what they thought about a documentary being shown, with some profanity. Should the documentary be censored?
At the time I was doing facility maintenance at an apartment complex, so I was in a vacant apartment getting it ready for rental. While I was in there, there was a guy working that re-glazed tubs. We were making small talk while he was glazing, and all of a sudden his phone rings. He starts freaking out, tells me what happened, and then leaves to get his kids.
So I get on the radio and call my supervisor to the office, and tell him that if I have to go get my little sister from school (she was 7 at the time) that I was going to leave. I called my mom to see if she was getting my sister, and she thought I was pulling her leg! After I told her to turn on the radio (she was in the car) she realized that unfortunately I was serious.
Since I didn't have to go get my sister, my supervisor and I went to the main office and watched the news for the rest of the day with the rest of the staff. I remember at some point, during live coverage, someone ran by the camera screaming something to the effect of "Oh, f***! They just a f***ing plane into our building".
That really struck me, and while I was troubled before, hearing "the f-word" on live TV snapped things into a new perspective. There was something raw and real about that. And while I am morally conservative (not an extremist, I don't think, but what extremist thinks they are?), I think it would benefit my kids to see a documentary or movie about 9/11 with the profanity. Something terrible happened on 9/11, and I think to clean up the presentation of it until it is "fit for sunday school" does a great disservice to the people who died in and for the towers and the pentagon. It isn't some sterile event in history, that happened September 11th, 2001, it was a real thing that seriously affected several lives and continues to do so. I know it has affected mine.
*Edited to add: Thinking about it more, the thing that would concern me about kids (mine, yours, whatever) seeing it would be the intense emotional ramifications of seeing planes flown into buildings, and the idea that there is a sect of people who hate you and want you to die. I wish there was some way that the worst my kids would have to deal with in life is people using foul language.
Tuesday, September 12. 2006
I was reading one of my "geek" forums (as Laura calls them), and read a thread inviting comments on other people's 9/11 experience, and then also what they thought about a documentary being shown, with some profanity. Should the documentary be censored?
At the time I was doing facility maintenance at an apartment complex, so I was in a vacant apartment getting it ready for rental. While I was in there, there was a guy working that re-glazed tubs. We were making small talk while he was glazing, and all of a sudden his phone rings. He starts freaking out, tells me what happened, and then leaves to get his kids.
So I get on the radio and call my supervisor to the office, and tell him that if I have to go get my little sister from school (she was 7 at the time) that I was going to leave. I called my mom to see if she was getting my sister, and she thought I was pulling her leg! After I told her to turn on the radio (she was in the car) she realized that unfortunately I was serious.
Since I didn't have to go get my sister, my supervisor and I went to the main office and watched the news for the rest of the day with the rest of the staff. I remember at some point, during live coverage, someone ran by the camera screaming something to the effect of "Oh, f***! They just a f***ing plane into our building".
That really struck me, and while I was troubled before, hearing "the f-word" on live TV snapped things into a new perspective. There was something raw and real about that. And while I am morally conservative (not an extremist, I don't think, but what extremist thinks they are?), I think it would benefit my kids to see a documentary or movie about 9/11 with the profanity. Something terrible happened on 9/11, and I think to clean up the presentation of it until it is "fit for sunday school" does a great disservice to the people who died in and for the towers and the pentagon. It isn't some sterile event in history, that happened September 11th, 2001, it was a real thing that seriously affected several lives and continues to do so. I know it has affected mine.
*Edited to add: Thinking about it more, the thing that would concern me about kids (mine, yours, whatever) seeing it would be the intense emotional ramifications of seeing planes flown into buildings, and the idea that there is a sect of people who hate you and want you to die. I wish there was some way that the worst my kids would have to deal with in life is people using foul language.