This is the mother of Mark Bingham, one of the men on Flight 93 who called friends and family and expressed that they were planning on taking acion against the terrorists.
No question that this guy is a hero, along with his co-passaengers.
I have a serious problem with this woman however. I’ve seen her on many many TV broadcasts, some of which seemed to have begun just hours after the crashes. Everytime I see her I am made sick. She has been conducting interviews with seeming glee. She has a constant pleased smile on her face, and I have not once sensed a shred of grief or anger over the loss of her son, and the actions of the terrorists.
Now, I presume that she genuinely has these feelings as strong and likely stronger than any of us, but I am unsettled by the way I see her on TV. I hope she is not enjoying this 15 minutes of fame she’s recieveing, sadly however it strikes me that she is. I hope that my impressions are way off, and every one of you tell me I’m crazy. She strikes me as unbalanced, detached, and just very untouched by this.
Does anyone else get this impression? I know I’d really prefer to not see her on TV any longer.
I think she’s trying to turn a horrible negative into a positive. By affirming that her son died a hero, and not a victim of a senseless attack, she can take some cold comfort. She probably wants the rest of the world to share her pride in the heroic actions of the passengers on that flight.
Different people cope with grief in different ways. Yes, I’m sure she’s unbalanced, but that’s to be expected after what happened to her son. I dare say she’s still in shock.
She has the rest of her life to adjust to the loss of her son. Right now, she’s just entering the first stages of loss.
I thought she looked like she was on serious medication. She was also exclusivley (from what I saw) referring to him in the present tense. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and she had the look of someone who isn’t ‘all there’.
Can you really blame her?
I don’t think you were seeing glee…I think it was more like denial and shock.
I saw, I think, was the first interview with her and she was definitely crying in that one. She was talking about how proud she was of him for being brave and strong and she was choking up and tears were running down her face. I have noticed since then that she seems very composed and almost cheerful, like Omni pointed out. I don’t know what is going on in the woman’s mind, but I would like to think that the reason she may appear somewhat happy is the fact that she is very, very proud of her son’s actions, even if they did ultimately cost him his life. Him and others on the plane may have saved thousands of innocent people on the ground from death. I also would like to believe that maybe she smiles sometimes because she is remembering funny things he said or did. I know that in my few experiences in dealing with the deaths of loved ones, our family members would talk fondly about funny things the deceased said or did and would often be laughing and crying at the same time. Of course, it is possible she is enjoying the attention she is getting too. Like I said, I don’t know the woman.
I wasn’t able to hear what she was saying, but I couldn’t help noticing that her and her husband’s expressions seemed completely unnatural for people who had just lost a son. It seemed like they were both too stunned to even begin grieving yet.
Having been there relatively recently (I lost my wife of ten weeks suddenly about a year and a half ago), I implore you not to be too harsh in your judgment of Mark Bingham’s mother and father. The reality of their loss probably has not sunk in yet. Coupled with the scale of the tragedy that we’re all wrapping our minds around this week they are definitely not all right and they’re probably acting the way they are because it’s the only way to keep functioning.
My uneducated guess is that these folks are putting on a on a brave face for the world and acted “normal” and sort of upbeat for the media. We don’t know what happens when the reporters go home and they’re in bed alone at night.
So please, keep that in mind when you think about them.
Zappo
Zappo, my condolences on your loss, I completely understand your point, and I do want to avoid villianizing this woman. While I am skeptical of your “brave face for the world” theory, I do agree that its likely that the reality of the situation has not set in yet.
While I certainly believe that she is grieving seriously when the cameras are off and she is alone with her family, the fact that she is able to project a complete mood swing in the face of public appearance isn’t any more comforting.
She simply strikes me as unbalanced, possibly medicated (permanently, or in order to cope with these last days) and no less unsettling to me, the viewer.
I’m really not this skeptical of human emotion and usually assume the best, but I haven’t gotten these feelings from seeing someone on TV since I saw the tapes of the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult. Spooky in a intangible, sixth sense kind of way.
i believe that she is concentrating on the fact that the plane her son was on, thwarted the hijacker’s plans. the fact that she refers to her son in the present tense shows that she hasn’t really dealt with his death yet. to me it seems that she is putting off the reality of her son’s death; she wants the world to know that her son and his fellow passengers fought the hijackers and won a very, very , high priced victory over them. once she has finished this i truly worry for her.
her “glee” i think it is partly nerves and partly disbelief.