E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSOne question I am asked again and again when the subject of 9-11 comes up: "What happened to our American spirit, the unity we all felt right after the attacks? Why can't we recapture that?"
In a way, I hope this two hour special edition of Dateline - America Remembers - will inspire everyone to rethink who we are and where we're going. The people I interview - the widows, the survivors, other family members - endured an unimaginable tragedy, and emerged from their grief determined to lead better, more meaningful lives. There was a surprising absence of bitterness on the part of all of them.
Marian Fontana, who lost her firefighter husband David on that day, their 8th wedding anniversary, said the grief remains. She described it as a brick in your pocket you'll always carry with you but, she also said she knew she had to go on. To honor her husband, she wrote a book and participated in political activities organized by the surviving families to correct the terrible shortcomings in our national security and vigilance. She used the proceeds from the compensation she received for David's death to help establish college trust funds for his nieces. Most of all, Marian and the others demonstrated a common commitment to honor their experiences and their losses by going through each day with a fresh appreciation of what matters most - a life lived well, family, memories and second chances.
We can all learn from them.
Tom Brokaw, NBC News correspondent
…
America Remembers is a special two-hour Dateline report that airs Friday, Sept. 9th, at 9pm/8c.
Leave a Comment:
How tasteless to have these silly ads on such a serious and important show . This should have being shown with out these . Companies who advertised through this will look very small and greedy when people talk about this tomorrow . This would never happen in Canada .
A remembrance, a tribute to the heroes--with commercials every 10 minutes? How incredibly sad that NBC and the advertisers couldn't pay homage to all how sacrificed their lives and the families who still grieve by simply telling the stories without the interruptions. Tomorrow we shall here on the news about the greedy corporations; what about you, NBC?
The Dateline Program was very meaningful and dignified --- Tom Brokaw's program always are, but the interminable commercials really disrupted the movement. The ads were coming every eight minutes. Is there no way the advertisers could have cooperated and done their commercializing at the beginning and the end without these disruptions. I lost the sadness and entire feling for the program. Good to see Brokaw, though.
Tom.
Tom, the 'spirit' of 9/11 ended when I learned that we had authorized the torture of prisoners. It was nice while it lasted.
So unwise and unworldly of you...you of little patience...there is no real answer to any of these problems...but YOU create problems by choosing to fight for something that is/was beyond our control ( nobody asked us if we agreed to torture)....we were kept in the dark about that. I suggest you ask Cheney and Bush about that whole nutmeg of a mess. Don't blame the journalists...they did't vote for torture! You have a vote...use it at the next election...but don't shoot the messenger!!
NBC...I have your back...but you do have to remove one of your ads....1 800 GET THIN.....especially by now!!!!.....people must realize these Dr's are in it for the money...whenever that happens....people die...so PLEASE do nor air those ads again. It reminds me of the movie...Bladerunner. Just don't go there!!
I forgot. You are searching for the sprit of 9/11? Let me help you here.
We are too busy paying for healthcare and in the end we are refused any care. The guys on top have to make a yearly profit. And they are laughing about it on TV. Something you would not know about. Private insurance like the rest of government?
We are too busy keeping our house. Oops. Yours might very well be on the expense account.
We are too busy working 2 and three jobs and still just pay the bills. Yeap. Now I remember. WE ARE the only ones' paying taxes. You guys with big money deduct it somehow from expenses and losses. Good for you. (...and so it goes...LA is turning into Calcutta)
Sound bitter? Nope. A bit angry at the ignorance and apathy of the American people. The world wide vision: A big American sitting in front of the TV eating while watching stupid sit-comes with laugh tracks. Even when I am home for summer I do not turn on the TV. The computer will give me the news. (other than network)
Tom Brokaw and team: Have some guts. Report what is really going on. You used to do so. I am disappointed. Forget what sells and start doing what you set out to do before money was more important than news. Get to it. I am officially embarrassed for all journalists who report nothing but hype. I live here and have to defend my country. Are we intelligent? Is CNN? (nope) Try watching Al Jazeera. It is the NPR (and Catholic Science Monitor) of the States. Come on people. Votes are coming up and you are watching network TV. 'What is one vote...... and my answer to you is: Hitler was elected democratically with one (1) vote). Get informed. Read about the Senate candidates: THEY SUCK! They want their retirement you will not get but pay for.
Mr. Brokaw, I have respected your work for many years and the quality of last night's broadcast was again, for what it portrayed, excellent. You said that in your interviews, those whom you spoke to were determined to "lead better, more meaningful lives" going forward. Coming from their places of almost unimaginable tragedy, these are noble and right aspirations. But what of our nation's aspirations moving forward from 9/11? What lessons should we have learned? On what should we have focused as we cleared away the rubble and the ashes from ground zero, the Pentagon, and that field in Pennsylvania?
I found myself wanting much more as your program ended. Maybe I expected too much. Maybe what I wanted you to address was truly beyond the scope of the actual 24 hour period after the first plane struck the first tower. I wanted you to report on the President calling to account exactly who it was who ordered that plane into the tower just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt had reported over crackling radio sets across America that the Empire of Japan had suddenly and deliberately attacked us. Another era. Another type of warfare. A time where warfare had rules, and warplanes had markings like the rising sun of the Japanese Air Force and not the marketing department artwork of a commercial airliner with innocent civilians aboard being thoughtlessly slaughtered by the religious fascists manning the cockpits.
Yes, I wanted your report to be bold enough, gutsy enough to say what all the facts of a true 9/11 retrospective would tell the American people based on the 9/11 Commission and the intelligence community findings; what an "America Remembers" really ought to say ten years later: that the whole plot was born of Islamic fascists bent on conquering the world for their sick, version of Islam; that America must--for the compelling interest of national security--answer key questions even now that Osama bin Laden is dead. I wanted to hear you and your NBC colleagues go into investigative journalism mode and assure us that because America remembers, you won't rest in pressing the Intelligence agencies, the Administration, the Courts, and the Congress day in, day out to find out how, when, and how hard they are prosecuting the war on radical Islamic fascism until it is no longer a threat to our national security.
Until that time, we can have as many warm remembrances of how well we cared for one another during and after 9/11/2001 as we want to to somehow soothe the pain, but I greatly fear that we will lull ourselves more and more into a place of apathy, pettiness, bickering, selfishness, and ripeness for our enemy's next attack.
Thank you for your good work. Please take it to the next step and report on what's left to do after 9/11 since so many still hate us and are committed to our destruction and the destruction of a peaceful way of life here in America.
True, we should never forget and keep the spirit alive. Ladder 6 on dateline was very touching. Here is a film based on that story Please share with your readers.
Tom Brokaw is a fine journalist, whom I've always admired. HOWEVER to air the Dateline program about 9/11 with all those stupid commercials was disruptive. Just as the viewers were getting into the emotions of the program, a sappy commercial would come on, making it impossible to follow the excellent content and emotional impact of the show. Against that, CBS did a show narrated by Robert DeNiro that had one sponsor and NOOOOO commercials. It was great!