January 11, 2002

9:14 AM

Widow of Sept. 11 Hero Gives Birth."Lisa Beamer, the widow of the man who cried, 'Let's roll!' as passengers aboard one of the doomed Sept. 11 flights prepared to confront their hijackers, has given birth to a healthy girl." How bittersweet; a part of him lives on, but I'm sure there is sadness because the husband couldn't be there for the birth.

Also, the Beamers have started a memorial foundation for children who lost parents in the 9/11 attacks.
posted by jennak (9 comments total)

Bittersweet indeed, once you get over the file name the NYT (or the AP) used for the article: AP-Attacks-Beamer-Baby.html.

I usually hover my mouse over a FPP link first to see where it goes before following the link, and this one was a bit alarming!
posted by Prawn at 11:29 AM on January 11, 2002

I'd like to think the husband WAS there, myself.

I know I would be..... It's a dad thing, I guess. Not even death would get in my way.
posted by dwivian at 12:03 PM on January 11, 2002

Awwww, Dwivian! That's such a touching thought.

This is probably going to come out wrong, but I can't help but worry about how the media categorizes the Flight 93 passengers. Some have been called heros, while perhaps those that might have also been heros may not have been mentioned. We will never know all that happened on that flight, so I am wary of classifying the passengers.
posted by jennak at 12:22 PM on January 11, 2002

You're right jennak, it came out wrong. It sounds like you're saying we shouldn't honor those we're pretty sure were heroes because we might leave out somebody who might also have been a hero. That would be silly.

"Take back those Medals of Honor, because there might have been some other soldiers who did heroic stuff that we don't know about!"
posted by straight at 2:41 PM on January 11, 2002

I am bothered by the fact that the FBI has told a congresswoman (Dem. Calif) that they would not release the black box because it would be"too emotionally disturbing." Fact: a number of cell phone calls went public and that is about as emotionally disturbing as can be. Doesn't the public and certainly the kin of those killed have a right to hear if they want and to ignore if they prefer? Why is a call made by the FBI and ignoring a request by a congressman (ok: lady or person if you prefer).
posted by Postroad at 3:20 PM on January 11, 2002

Personally I'm not comfortable calling them heroes, Straight, because we don't have any real evidence.

So this guy is a hero based on an cell-phone operator's statements to the press. The press wants to have good ratings for their stories. You get good ratings by, in these circumstances, finding lots of American heroes and Afghani "murderers, evil-doers, terrorists" or whatever Bush's latest bad guy buzz word is.

I'm really sorry that this guy died, just as I am for all of the other 6,000 American civilians on Sept. 11th that died. But I'm not going to let my emotions make heroes out of vague, filtered, and media-spun evidence. Get the facts, not this spoon-fed pick-me-up secretary gossip crap. Then I will actually be able to call them heroes and feel good about it.
posted by zekinskia at 3:37 PM on January 11, 2002

Jennak's question--and the sentiment behind it--is perfectly legitimate. We do not know what happened on Flight 93, and we never will. We can call anyone we want to a hero, but we've gotta understand that our labels will only ever be provisional.

On a completely separate note, I think that the word 'hero' is getting thrown around too much. Suddenly everybody's a hero. I'm a hero, you're a hero.. all it takes to be a hero is not curling up in a little ball and whimpering. A lot of genuine heroes have emerged in recent months, and we do a disservice to them by trying to be so inclusive with a very exclusive term.
posted by Hildago at 4:31 PM on January 11, 2002

Fact: a number of cell phone calls went public and that is about as emotionally disturbing as can be. Doesn't the public and certainly the kin of those killed have a right to hear if they want and to ignore if they prefer?

the kin may have the right, but the public? absolutely not. The cell phone calls that made their way into the mainstream media did so because the recipients volunteered the information. My friend's younger brother was one of the Cantor brokers, and in the process of trying to get information from people that had been the last to see him or his co-workers in the hours and days following the attacks, I heard some truly horrifying stories of last minute cell-phone calls. thank god none of them made it into the nightly news. the families would have been mortified and devastated to hear them played back on national TV over and over again. These people are private citizens and they and their families have a *right to privacy.* just because the public *wants* to know doesn't mean it has a *right* to know.
posted by lizs at 5:15 PM on January 11, 2002

I'd like to think the husband WAS there, myself.

I know I would be..... It's a dad thing, I guess. Not even death would get in my way.

I would bet that this was a key thought going through the thought of the mother at the time of birth.
posted by demannu at 9:28 PM on January 11, 2002