Remembering 9/11

I was in a country that did not have TV at the time, so heard about it on the radio.

For about half an hour I thought it was a radio drama.

And then, for at least a day, I thought air traffic control had screwed up.

The world was a better place before then.

More friendly. More liberal. More caring as human beings.

We were a few years clear of the Cold War and then all this.

Crap. Can't we live together on this planet for any period of time without trying to kill each other?

We all thought the Americans would go mad in response.

Looking back over the past ten years, they did.

It was a very sad day. But I did not realise how sad until much later. Not fully until I moved here.

It was pretty disturbing watching people jump from the buildings, and then to watch others dancing in the streets in response to it.

You really think the world was a more friendly, more liberal , and more caring as human beings before 911? Look back at history. Your history, our history, Japan's, Germany's history, any history. You wear rose-colored glasses Ian. We didn't go mad, the circumstances were mad.

Ian Gills said:

I was in a country that did not have TV at the time, so heard about it on the radio.

For about half an hour I thought it was a radio drama.

And then, for at least a day, I thought air traffic control had screwed up.

The world was a better place before then.

More friendly. More liberal. More caring as human beings.

We were a few years clear of the Cold War and then all this.

Crap. Can't we live together on this planet for any period of time without trying to kill each other?

We all thought the Americans would go mad in response.

Looking back over the past ten years, they did.

It was a very sad day. But I did not realise how sad until much later. Not fully until I moved here.

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If I could had been there and caught this man, all of them, I would had done so.

Updated: September 7, 2011 10:58AM


Of all the indelible images of 9/11 — hijacked planes ripping through World Trade Center, the towers collapsing upon themselves, fleeing survivors caked in dust — none capture the humanity of that day the way a single picture by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew did.

In the photo a man is falling. He is falling headfirst from the upper floors of the World Trade Center. He is centered in the frame against a backdrop of the tower’s symmetrical lines. In that instant, the man appears relaxed as his body hurled toward the ground in a near perfect straight line.

The iconic photo — now known as “The Falling Man” — was published in a handful of newspapers across the country the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But it was rarely published again. The very sight of it outraged readers. Some wrote letters complaining that the man in the photo might be identified and publishing that picture invaded his privacy and sensationally exploited his certain death.

But 10 years later, can we look at the photo again? Should we? Is it still too soon?

At lunchtime on a recent sunny day outside the downtown AON building, which from a distance strikes an eerie resemblance to the World Trade Center towers, retired banker Hill Hammock answered with resolve.

“It can’t be too soon,” Hammock, 65, said. “I think we need to remind ourselves of how fragile all of our lives are and how suddenly horrific events can change them, and be mindful of the preciousness and be reminded of the loss that we all suffered on 9/11. While this picture is very difficult to look at it captures all of those feeling in one scene.”

We should take a long, hard look at The Falling Man, management consultant Rick Stone said. And if it is painful, so be it.

“It shows the tragedy of that day. If it evokes emotion in people that’s probably good. It’s good to remember,” the 58-year management consultant said. “I think it’s terrible. It’s very, very sad. But I know it happened. A lot of them jumped. And I hope it never happens again. I remember seeing people waving towels out the windows looking for help. They are all gone. It’s tragedy.”

Of course, not everyone agrees. For Deborah Browder, the picture is too intense — even 10 years later.

“I don’t think there’s any benefit showing it. It disturbs. Too many bad memories. It’s too much. It’s just so real,” the 47-year-old executive assistant from Calumet City said. “We know what happened, but I don’t think it’s necessary to look at that.”

In 2003, Esquire writer Tom Junod wrote the definitive story about photograph and the journalistic quest to determine the identity of The Falling Man.

“When I wrote that story the picture was not iconic, it was suppressed. It was very much a taboo subject,” Junod said. “I wrote that story for the purpose of enabling it to be shown again. No matter how many times you look at the shot it’s shocking. And I look at it a lot.... Ten years time makes it easier to look at.”

Junod reported that some people believe Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old who worked at the Window on the World Restaurant, is The Falling Man. No one, however, has officially confirmed the identity of the man in the picture.

Even if the photo of the last moments of The Falling Man’s life is impossible to stomach, we should look at that picture for one undeniable reason — the moment captured in Drew’s photo happened, Chicagoan Steve Musico said.

“I want to see the world as it really is. And that’s part of what the world is really like,” the 55-year accountant said. “It was an important part of our history. This is real life and that should be reported.”

Richard Drew agrees. The AP photographer has been capturing real life as it unfolds without hesitation or apologies his entire 45-year news career.

When he was just 21 years old, Drew was standing next to Bobby Kennedy when the presidential hopeful was assassinated. He snapped pictures of Kennedy’s last moments alive. The jacket Drew was wearing that day was splattered in Kennedy’s blood. He still has the coat somewhere. Kennedy’s wife pleaded for him to stop taking photographs.

And like that moment, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was another “horrible day” Drew captured with his camera. He doesn’t apologize for showing his work.

His “Falling Man” picture was part of a sequence.

“It was the luck of the camera. If it was a fraction of a second later that picture wouldn’t be the same,” he said. “I just held my finger on the button.”

What surprised Junod most while reporting The Falling Man story was that that “people wanted to hear the truth” about what happened that day.

“At the time, they were being lied to about how their loved ones died,” Junod said. “The family of the person we tentatively identified [as The Falling Man], the Briley family was incredibly brave. They did not reject the idea that it might be Jonathan, nor did they reject our inquiries ... that was what I was really surprised about.”

As iconic as the photograph has become, Drew doesn’t think the identity of The Falling Man in his picture should ever be confirmed.

“I think he can be representative of everyone who had to face that fate on that day. It’s a very quiet photograph. There’s no violence in it,” he said. “And people shunned it in the beginning. ... He is one of almost 3,000 people who died in the World Trade Center tragedy. In other images we see the buildings fall down like it was a movie. We see the firefighters doing their bit and police doing their bit. We don’t see the humanity. We don’t see anything of people who perished that day. Maybe he represents the people who died.”

The world was a better place before that day.

9/11 took away your innocence and our freedom.

And the leader of the video you show, Yasser Arafat, was among the first to condemn the attacks. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he did that publically before the first tower fell.

You can't blame a whole nation or religion for the actions of a few nuts.

You should know that.

I'll tell you how the sun rose,
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
"That must have been the sun!"
But how he set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while
Till when they reached the other side,
A dominie in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away.

Emily Dickinson

I don't think I blamed a single-soul, I only stated the facts which showed the sorrow of the Falling Man which epitomizes the sorrow of that day; and, the jubilation ( of many people in his country). And, those whomever, planned the actions, and to orchestrate an attack of that magnitude on 9/11, consisted of an orchard of bushes.

Ian Gills said:

The world was a better place before that day.

9/11 took away your innocence and our freedom.

And the leader of the video you show, Yasser Arafat, was among the first to condemn the attacks. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he did that publically before the first tower fell.

You can't blame a whole nation or religion for the actions of a few nuts.

You should know that.

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For those unfamiliar with Emily,

Dickinson uses nature to portray life and death. She commences with, "I'll tell you how the sun rose, - a ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, the news like squirrels ran". This first stanza is mean to symbolize birth and the beginning of life. The rising sun is often a common symbol for new life, and Dickinson employs it here along with the gentle innocence that "a ribbon at a time" conveys. To contrast this stanza, Dickinson writes in a later stanza:

"But how the sun set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while

Till when they reached the other side
A dominie in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away."

The setting sun is used in this situation to symbolize death, the end of life here on this earth. This death is further reinforced in the next stanza when the dominie, or clergyman, "put gently up the evening bars, and led the flock away". The dominie is a direct parallel to God, leading the new recipients of eternal salvation away from earth and into Heaven.

I am surprised that you had to move here to completely or fully, undestand the pain, the sorrow and the suffering of others over 911. I understood the pain and suffering of others by listening to my dad talk about WW2. I could feel the pain of others by written words, or watching a tv broadcast. As much as you think, I should had known, whatever you think I should had known, it should not had taken you to move her to feel another's pain. I don't know what you think what happened at Pearl Harbor was, but, innocence was lost well before this, innocence was lost in learning the horror's of WW2, learning how low humanity can sink. 911, is the attack of Pearl Harbor of today.

You don't realise the size of (what was) the Twin Towers unless you come here. Period.

Same with the Pentagon.

Just so I know what you are referring to, is this about you not understanding what you call sadness of the american people until you moved here? If so, I am lost as to what the size of the building has to do with understanding loss.

Maybe, it didn't seem real to you until, you saw the buildings?
But, a loss of 3,000 lives in an attack speak volumes.

You asked why can't people live in peace?

There is a book, which many college classes require, it is, The Peace Book. Written by Louise Diamond It cites 108 simple ways to create a more peaceful world. Louise Diamond has dedicated her life to helping people live with each other. Louise is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy based in Washington, D.C. that takes a systems approach to peacebuilding in places of ethnic and regional conflict around the world.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men ( and women) to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

An excerpt:

When the World Trade Center went down, something basic shifted in our human consciousness, at least in the United States; we woke up to the realities of war, and to the need for peace as a tangible presence among the whole human family. We woke up, too, to the realization that peace does not appear effortlessly, through our dreams-it requires action.

The United Nations declared the year 2000 as the UN Year of the Culture of Peace, and the years 2001 to 2010 the UN Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.

Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence-the presence of connection.

www.thepeacecompany.com

Cookie said:

You asked why can't people live in peace?

There is a book, which many college classes require, it is, The Peace Book. Written by Louise Diamond It cites 108 simple ways to create a more peaceful world. Louise Diamond has dedicated her life to helping people live with each other. Louise is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy based in Washington, D.C. that takes a systems approach to peacebuilding in places of ethnic and regional conflict around the world.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men ( and women) to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

An excerpt:

When the World Trade Center went down, something basic shifted in our human consciousness, at least in the United States; we woke up to the realities of war, and to the need for peace as a tangible presence among the whole human family. We woke up, too, to the realization that peace does not appear effortlessly, through our dreams-it requires action.

The United Nations declared the year 2000 as the UN Year of the Culture of Peace, and the years 2001 to 2010 the UN Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.

Peace is more than the absence of war, violence, or conflict, though that is an important first step. Peace is a presence-the presence of connection.

www.thepeacecompany.com

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My take on 9/11, with ten years to look back on it, is that we were too quick to label the attack as an act of war rather than as a vicious crime. Once we called it a war, we were obligated to go to battle against other countries and other peoples. As events in Afghanistan and Pakistan (and Vietnam) show, effectively extracting oneself from a prolonged war when you do not have the objective of conquering the inhabitants is virtually impossible.

Cookie said:

I am surprised that you had to move here to completely or fully, undestand the pain, the sorrow and the suffering of others over 911. I understood the pain and suffering of others by listening to my dad talk about WW2. I could feel the pain of others by written words, or watching a tv broadcast. As much as you think, I should had known, whatever you think I should had known, it should not had taken you to move her to feel another's pain. I don't know what you think what happened at Pearl Harbor was, but, innocence was lost well before this, innocence was lost in learning the horror's of WW2, learning how low humanity can sink. 911, is the attack of Pearl Harbor of today.

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Well said Cookie

Cookie said:

I am surprised that you had to move here to completely or fully, undestand the pain, the sorrow and the suffering of others over 911. I understood the pain and suffering of others by listening to my dad talk about WW2. I could feel the pain of others by written words, or watching a tv broadcast. As much as you think, I should had known, whatever you think I should had known, it should not had taken you to move her to feel another's pain. I don't know what you think what happened at Pearl Harbor was, but, innocence was lost well before this, innocence was lost in learning the horror's of WW2, learning how low humanity can sink. 911, is the attack of Pearl Harbor of today.

Click to expand...

When I was visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial I had the priviledge of listening to a surviving sailor talk about his experience during the attack. Very moving. Soon there will be none left who can tell of the same.