The story of United Flight 93 is one that all Americans know, and, more specifically, should take pride in. Ordinary citizens rose up to fight back against terrorism, refusing to allow themselves to be used as tools for violence and bloodshed. Instead, they nobly sacrificed their own lives to protect the lives of others. They are the very definition of American heroes.
What is not widely known is the fact that actor Mark Wahlberg was supposed to be on that flight. Now, however, that has been brought to the forefront. More importantly, so has the fact that Wahlberg is arrogant enough to believe he could have changed the outcome of that flight.
While being interviewed for the February edition of Men’s Journal, Wahldberg said that, “If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”
To say this is crass and insulting is an understatement. Wahlberg plays an action hero in many movies. By no means does that qualify him as one in real life. To think that, simply because he had been there, things would have turned out differently, does a great disservice to the brave men and women on Flight 93. Not only that, but it is also extremely insulting to their loved ones. By saying he could have saved the day, Wahlberg is, by extension, saying the passengers of Flight 93 were incapable of doing it themselves. Essentially, Wahlberg is telling these families he is better than the loved ones they lost.
Any idea we have of what happened on that plane is cobbled together from phone calls and recordings. What really happened, specifically in the final few minutes of the flight, is not entirely known. Wahlberg is merely assuming that, because of his ‘training’ as a movie star, he would have been able to alter the outcome of a series of events we know very little about.
As is often said, hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy for us to look back now and say what should have been done. The men and women on United Flight 93 didn’t have that luxury. That, however, didn’t stop them from acting in a manner befitting the highest values of American culture.
In our culture we often confuse fictional heroes for real heroes. We idolize men and women who pretend to save the lives of others, when in reality it should be the people who do so in real life. Had it been a movie, the plane probably would have landed and Wahlberg would have been a hero. But it wasn’t a movie. It was real life, and in real life things don’t always have happy endings. Always expecting there to be a happy ending takes away from the nobility and courage of the sacrifice made.
Wahlberg has since retracted his statement and apologized for it. However, that does not negate his claim as arrogant and disrespectful enough to believe he could have done better than those passengers. All it does is show that, after the outcry against him, he had the common sense to realize what a horrible PR move it was. Again, it looks like hindsight is 20/20.