Film raises disturbing questions about Sept. 11, 2001

Publisher’s note: The American Legion in South Lake Tahoe will have a ceremony for Patriots Day at 11am.

By Kathryn Reed

Filmmaker Dylan Avery calls his film “Loose Change” one based on facts, not one based on conspiracy theories.

It was first released in 2005 and has had subsequent updates. The latest version came out in 2009. That is the one I recently viewed.

It’s all about Sept. 11, 2001. The documentary goes back in history to Hitler’s rise in Nazi Germany, includes events leading up to the day the Twin Towers were leveled, and delves into the aftermath in the years that followed.

I wasn’t in the country Sept 11. I wasn’t inundated with news stories. I didn’t fear for my life in ways others did in thinking the United States would be struck again by terrorists.

As a journalist and ardent supporter of the First Amendment, I was alarmed to read about the government cracking down on journalists who sought the truth and questioned the government. What was there to hide? Why were the powers that be scared?

Our government never deserves our unquestioned allegiance. Look at what we did to our citizens of Japanese descent after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Look at how we shuttled Native Americans off to reservations – a nightmarish issue that continues to have repercussions today. Look up Tuskegee syphilis experiment if you want to know what the government has done. Look in the produce aisle to see altered food products without substantive testing on them to know what they will do our bodies in years to come.

Could the government have brought down the Twin Towers in New York? Yes. Did it? I don’t know.

The film raises chilling questions.

What were those puffs of smoke that appear to be detonation charges from various floors of both towers? Why did it seem to implode like a planned destruction more than it resembled an explosion?

I didn’t realize the steel from the buildings was immediately hauled overseas. Why wasn’t it kept on U.S. soil for structural engineers to analyze the integrity of the steel, to learn from this collapse to know how to fortify future buildings?

When I flew back to the States from South America in December 2001 it was to New York (via Miami) to spend New Year’s Eve with Mom and my sister, Pam.

We were fortunate to visit Ground Zero the day it opened to the public. Rubble remained. But it was more like a crater.

Until this film, I had never seen footage of the plane hitting the first tower.

I had not realized until this film that no debris from the planes that hit the Pentagon and crashed in Pittsburgh was found. Like the filmmaker, I wonder how this is possible.

I wonder to this day how we took the great leap to assume Saddam Hussein and those still missing weapons of mass destruction had something to do with 9/11. I wonder why my nephew has served two tours in Iraq. I worry about his safety even more now that in July he graduated from Special Forces training and is a Green Beret. Yes, it’s his choice. He freely joined the Army.

As his aunt, I still worry – about him, and all the other men and women our government sends to fight its battles. I have yet to have someone explain to me how this is our war. Our being the people of the United States’ as opposed to the our the government wants us to believe in.

Seeing “Loose Change” further confuses me and infuriates me.

On this somber ninth anniversary of 9/11 all I can do is feel empty.