Copyright 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspaper Group Inc.
By BENNING W. DE LA MATER
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On Sept. 11, 2001, more than 300 New York City first responders died while trying to save people trapped in the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks that morning.
Fast forward to today: There’s a group of 40 surviving first responders trying to put an end to the war in Iraq and broker peace talks between Americans and Middle Easterners.
They’re called Ground Zero for Peace, and you’ve probably never heard of them. Filmmaker Tom Jackson is not surprised.
“They have been virtually ignored by the mainstream media,” Jackson said.
Jackson is trying to change that. The 45-year-old Boston native was in Berkshire County yesterday to show his 59-minute film “Worlds Apart: 9/11 First Responders Against War.”
The event was sponsored by Berkshire Community College’s Global Issues Resource Organization and Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice. Dozens filled Melville Hall at BCC for an afternoon showing, and then also in the evening at the Unitarian/Universalist Church on Wendell Avenue.
The documentary chronicles four members of the group, their experiences after Sept. 11 and a trip to Afghanistan in 2004 to meet with first responders in that country.
Jackson was working in a high-tech Internet firm in the mid-1990s when he took some classes on filmmaking. Driven by a distrust for mass media, Jackson said he wanted to find the truth for himself in what he saw as racist and biased reporting in the Middle East.
“There were some holes in the reporting, things left out, especially around the time of the first Gulf War,” he said.
He moved to Iraq in 2000 and made the film “Greetings from Missile Street,” documenting the effects of U.S. economic sanctions on Iraqi civilians. Ground Zero for Peace founder Megan Bartlett, an EMT, saw the movie and invited Jackson to accompany her on a trip to Afghanistan.
For those who survived the horror scenes of Sept. 11, the memories will always be fresh. The group formed with hopes of eradicating terrorism by the use of a non-violent response, their belief that violence only breeds more violence. More than 30,000 civilians have died in Iraq, and more than 4,000 in Afghanistan since the U.S invaded.
Bartlett wanted to meet with Afghani first responders in an attempt to establish friendships, and to see for herself if Afghani rescue workers were really much different from those in America.
They weren’t. Bartlett saw her father’s traits in one first responder from Kabul while he helped his daughter with school work. She saw in the rescue workers excitement when a call came over the radio, “not because something bad has happened, but because they wanted to help, just like us,” she said.
The most poignant part of the movie comes when John Keenan, a New York City firefighter, recounts a ferry ride filled with firefighters on Sept. 11.
“They were all talking about nuking the Middle East,” Keenan said. “Then, I looked over my shoulder and there was the Statue of Liberty. It was so ironic. They never thought that maybe our foreign policies had something to do with it.”
Then there was a burly NYC firefighter who told Bartlett that he wanted to go with her to Iraq, but couldn’t because of pressures from coworkers.
“He said to me, ‘Something’s wrong with the world when I’m not afraid to run up 100 flights of stairs into a burning building, but I’m afraid to tell my firehouse that I was against going into Afghanistan,’ ” Bartlett said.
Roy Soucie, 28, a BCC student from North Adams, is a veteran of the Kosovo conflict who served as a hospital corpsman in the Marine 26th Expedition force. He was in the audience yesterday and enjoyed the movie, but he also wanted to make one thing clear.
“The military isn’t just a bunch of demons,” he said as he rose to speak to Jackson. “They’re trying to bring stability to the region. They’re trying to help give those people a better way of life.”
Jackson agreed with Soucie.
“I don’t blame our men and women in the military,” Jackson said. “I blame our government.”