A couple columns that ran in the Times-Union caught my eye.

I guess I couldn't have disagreed with them any more than I did.

Frankly, they had me scratching my head.

A little background.

My wife and I went to see that "Spider-Man" movie when it came out.

I liked it.

It was a classic comic- book superhero story with some really cool special effects and modern techno gadgetry.

It had a decent plot - a tender love story - and it wasn't rife with vulgarity or gratuitous sex.

We both left the theater feeling entertained and upbeat.

Along comes a column by Washington Post columnist David Broder.

Here's how he started his piece about "Spider-Man":

"I spent two hours of Memorial Day weekend watching the destruction of Manhattan from the sky by a jet-equipped madman determined to wreak havoc on a society he thought had scorned him."

He notes how popular the film was at the box office and I am wondering, where is he going with this?

Then, he offers:

"I was appalled - first, that such a film had been released eight months after suicidal hijackers had flown airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and second that so many of my neighbors - people whose judgment I would usually never question - thought that Columbia Pictures and Hollywood had served up great entertainment in this no-longer-comic comic-book tale."

Oh. I see. It's the 9/11 thing.

He goes on to note parallels between "Spider-Man" and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers.

The heroine's fall from a balcony - Spiderman catches, her, of course - reminds him of the people who jumped on 9/11.

The villain, perched on his stand-up rocket sled was "blowing out windows, crashing cornices onto terrorized pedestrians and causing the kind of chaos we saw ... all too recently."

After reading this, I reflected on the movie. I tried really hard to come up with those same parallels. I just couldn't do it.

And when I watched the movie, I never once even thought about 9/11. The film simply didn't evoke those memories.

It isn't as if I have been cloistered away from the news or anything. I, at least as much and probably more than the average person, was immersed in the drama and tragedy of 9/11.

We have a television in the newsroom streaming CNN all the time. I have the Associated Press, Scripps Howard News Service and the Web sites of all the nation's top newspapers at my fingertips.

Nonetheless, "Spider-Man" didn't remind me of 9/11 at all.

And you know what? I'm glad it didn't.

And you know what else? I'm just a little miffed at David Broder for implying that if "Spider-Man" didn't remind me of 9/11, there must be something wrong with me.

I think there's something wrong with him.

I think he needs to let it go.

Don't misunderstand. I didn't say he should forget.

We must never forget the victims and the heroes, the sounds and the images.

Those memories help ensure that the work of incapacitating those who perpetrate and promote terror will continue.

But at the same time, I don't think we need to dwell on those images.

I fervently disagreed with another column we ran last week by Stephanie Salter of Scripps Howard.

She was talking about the new age of anxiety in America after 9/11.

Try this on for size:

"Millions and millions of people in this country now live in a fairly constant state of anxiety and dread."

She adds:

"... the world is a hostile, seething, irrational and damned scary place. Our days of being smugly removed from the fray - all safe and fat behind the security gates of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - are sooooo over. ...

We can pretend and deny or we can move over and make room for the dread."

Well, thank you very much, Princess Gloom.

You see, I think she is dead wrong.

I think this is America.

I think America is strong, generous, prosperous and independent.

Most important of all, America is free.

America is the embodiment of freedom and everyone in the world knows it.

There are those who hate America. But if they hate America, they hate freedom.

And isn't it odd that many of those around the world who claim to hate America send their children to live in our country and study in our universities?

They buy our products, accept our foreign aid and take advantage of our vast resources.

There will always be those who hate American. There will always be a threat of terrorism.

Surely, we must remain alert and vigilant. The government must work hard to coordinate and initiate effective anti-terrorism programs and policies.

But I refuse to live in a state of dread as Salter suggests I should.

I refuse to allow 9/11 to be so pervasive in my consciousness that it befouls something as simple and enjoyable as a trip to the movies as it did for Broder.

To do so, in my view, hands a victory to the terrorists.

Remember, in the totalitarian world of the terrorist, freedom is a weakness and human life has no sanctity.

They would like nothing more than to eat away at our freedom and our humanity.

Allowing 9/11 to permeate our daily lives as these columnists suggest is a step in that direction.

It abridges our freedom. [[In-content Ad]]