Where It's 9-11 All the Time...Click the picture...
Posted on 03/12/2006 10:46:13 AM PST by aculeus
At dawn on September 11, 2001 in Mount Vernon, New York, a man wakes, dresses, pulls black high-top trainers onto his feet, kisses his sleeping wife and heads to work in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Meanwhile in Queens another man — a pastry chef at Windows on the World, the twin towers’ top-floor restaurant — puts on jeans, a blue checked shirt and a Casio watch handed to him by his wife. She drives him to the station, where he waves goodbye, disappearing down the subway steps.
In New York City and its suburbs more than 2,600 others get ready for work. They choose suits, chefs’ trousers, firemen’s uniforms, baseball caps, summer dresses, overalls. All of them will be dead by morning’s end. As many as 200 will die jumping from floors 99 and above of the twin towers, the clothes they put on billowing, tearing, unravelling as they fall for 10 seconds on a journey from life to death.
As television stations turned their lenses from “the jumpers” in horror, Associated Press photographer Richard Drew caught an image of a man in freefall from the north tower. Fire rained, screams and soot filled the air and people on the ground began to flee, but Drew stayed to photograph the falling.
Later, back in AP’s offices, one of his shots intrigued him: a man, seemingly composed, his neat form set against an endless background of glass and steel. It has a stillness, suggesting an almost private moment that left those who saw it feeling uncomfortable and voyeuristic. How could such a quiet moment occur on such a violent day? American Airlines Flight 11 had hit the north tower at 8.45am.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Sobering.
Far too many people have already either forgotten the WTC atrocity or twisted and reformed it to fit into their own political agenda. BTT.
I don't understand the obsession of identifying the man in the picture. What purpose does it serve?
I'm somewhat surprised that the article didn't show the picture.
Me too. There may be copyright problems.
I'm also surprised no one has blamed me for not posting the picture.
It was truly an amazing emotional day. Watching the planes crash, buildings fall, 'others' cheer, and still others spell bound by horror. The sinking feeling as the mayor of Cleveland ordered the evacuation of tall buildings in downtown, driving home, listening in what seemed like endless silence.
I saw the 'jumpers' and in my heart knew, understood, and forgave.
Too much even now to contemplate.
Where It's 9-11 All the Time...Click the picture...
(With head respectfully bowed to the innocents lost on 9-11)
New York Minute (Don Henley)
Harry got up
Dressed all in black
Went down to the station
And he never came back
They found his clothing
Scattered somewhere down the track
And he won’t be down on wall street
In the morning
He had a home
The love of a girl
But men get lost sometimes
As years unfurl
One day he crossed some line
And he was too much in this world
But I guess it doesn’t matter anymore
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
Things can get pretty strange
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody’s going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
Things can get a little strange
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
And in these days
When darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love
You better take a fool’s advice
And take care of your own
One day they’re here;
Next day they’re gone
I pulled my coat around my shoulders
And took a walk down through the park
The leaves were falling around me
The groaning city in the gathering dark
On some solitary rock
A desperate lover left his mark,
Baby, I’ve changed. please come back.
What the head makes cloudy
The heart makes very clear
The days were so much brighter
In the time when she was here
But I know there’s somebody somewhere
Make these dark clouds disappear
Until that day, I have to believe
I believe, I believe...
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
You can get out of the rain
In a new york minute
Everything can change
In a new york minute
Very sobering. I remember every detail of that horrible day. The pics of the jumpers still choke me up and raise my anger level to rage.
Wow....reading that link now makes my blood boil.
Some things just can freeze your heart or etch your soul forever... Many of the images of 9/11 are like that. I think in this case, the photographer wants and answer because not knowing is a true burden.
I feel our government and our mainstream media has robbed us of an essential part of our adult lives, and treated us as children.
There too, is a great deal of resentment. To this day.
I am, and want to be angry about 9/11.
The great silence, the societal "averting the eyes" makes me angrier.
Simple humanity.
If you need to ask, no explanation is possible.
I'm a Catholic. I believe that suicide is wrong.
I don't think any of those people committed suicide. It's not suicide when you jump to escape from a burning building that will kill you, as far as I'm concerned.
May they rest in peace with God.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.