[Dialogue] Fahrenheit 9/11

[TCWright@aol.com]

Went to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" yesterday with a friend. I did not like the 
experience, but I'm glad I went. It is most illuminating on a variety of fronts. 
Chief of these was the establishment of a link between attitudes and events. 
Since when have attitudes broken free of personal preferences, and by default 
influenced really important decisions?

As we walked to the car my friend said, "Well, what do you think?" My 
response was, "I'm not thinking, I'm feeling!" Intellectual, it isn't. The arguments 
presented are not clear or complete, and there is much left to wish for about 
its documentation. But that's exactly what he was out to do: leave the viewer 
with lots of true data, leaving the weaving of a rational statement to the 
viewer. He doesn't care whether you agree with him; he just wants to shock you 
awake so you are maybe disturbed about what apparently is going on in Iraq and 
with our government officials. His point is, this doesn't make sense, from any 
angle. 

So he makes a lot of cheap shots, so his data is only partially grounded in 
reality, so what? So you don't have any doubts? Of course you do; open your 
eyes and your heart and think for a minute. Let frightening reality sink in and 
see if you need to change your appropriation of this war. During the movie 
there isn't really time to 
think, only to absorb the images or furiously, impulsively, reject the whole 
thing out-of-hand. It is only partially history; it's more nearly a classic 
sermon. Everybody should see it, no matter their persuasion or their political 
loyalties. He doesn't even mention the insurgency or the political transition 
taking place now. He keeps the focus on the presence or absence of COMPASSION 
as an alternative to WAR, and perhaps to gross INCOMPETENCE. He invites you 
to BE there and it's almost impossible to refuse the invitation. Thats why I 
was in shock as I left the theater.

I am no longer in shock, I think. Feeling just a cold, hard anger at the 
vagaries of history as it unfolds. Not anger at a person or persons, all of whom 
are operating within an inhumanly complex context. This does not excuse the 
decisions made, it simply holds the decision-makers in compassion. It means 
nothing to say this war is an error glued to the face of history. This war is the 
face of God in history. An ugly face. The bottom-line 
question is, how do we participate in building the hopefully new nation of 
Iraq with brave Iraquis ready to make the attempt, with all the implications for 
the Middle East in the balance. Bloody war has opened those possibilities. I 
give thanks for the past; I wonder about the future.

TCWright 
July 1, 2004