[Grig]

Whoa! Thanks for the pics.

For the life of me I can't understand jumping out the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely, to be so without hope or faith that I would give up and take a plunge like that. I tried to put myself mental in their situation, but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

[1Old Pro]

For the life of me I can't understand jumping out the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely, to be so without hope or faith that I would give up and take a plunge like that. I tried to put myself mental in their situation, but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

Unfortunately, I suspect the choice was
1) A slow painful death by intense heat, fire, and smoke.Anyone on top once the fire and smoke became intense clearly knew there was no chance of survival.
Jump.

[Taliesan]

but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

They probably jumped literally out of the flames.

[MHGinTN]

I don't know if this will help, but if you were feeling certain that you would die that day, by fire, smoke inhalation, crushed, or falling to your death, the least painful way to go would be the pain-free impact at the bottom of the long fall. The human nervous system speed limit is such that you would not experience the impact for the annihilation would be so massive and so sudden there would be no time for nerve feedback with the brain. ...

That massive annihilation is what I feel should be rained down upon the terrorists' benefactors, their supporters, the talibunnies and any that harbor or promote the use of terror against civilians in their demonic effort to please their evil allah. 'Evil allah,' you might ask? Yes, for what diety would call the slaughter of the innocent with malice a forethought as a good thing? Do our bombs occasionally kill innocent civilians? Yes, but the main difference is our intent, as we try to reduce the death to innocent persons to the lowest possible; we are seeking to kill the military power that holds a demonic lock over the innocent civilians and exports this evil that attacks the innocent purposely, instead of making war on a military, and thus to free the nation to live without the evil now over them. You want to argue with that notion of the difference? Take it up with God; I'm satisfied that their allah is not He, not The God of Grace. [My 'you' is used as a non-specific pronoun here.]

[Lazamataz]

For the life of me I can't understand jumping out the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely, to be so without hope or faith that I would give up and take a plunge like that. I tried to put myself mental in their situation, but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

10 seconds of searing heat making your skin bubble would change your attitude immediately. Fire is the most painful way to go possible. In World War I -- before parachutes were invented -- biplane pilots who's planes were on fire would jump out of their craft to a certain death rather than burn in the plane.

If you were in either tower, you, too, would jump.

[Alberta's Child]

I would rather die fighting, too. Based on what people from New York have told me, the primary motivation for jumping was that the floors above the crash points had gotten so intensely hot that people couldn't even bear to stand there anymore.

This was from someone whose co-worker received one last phone call from her husband -- he had to climb on top of his filing cabinet just to have those last few extra moments.

[ben richards]

I've thought about this too. I like to think of myself as a fighter, too, but you can't fight that unbearable heat and the thick smoke. I think these people chose their method of death and that was to jump.

[NYC GOP Chick]

For the life of me I can't understand jumping out the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely, to be so without hope or faith that I would give up and take a plunge like that. I tried to put myself mental in their situation, but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

You wouldn't have died fighting that day -- you would have died being burned to death at temperatures in the range of 1000-2000 degrees Fahrenheit, if you did not jump. There was nothing or nobody to "fight." They were doomed.

I saw people jumping that morning and am still haunted that I can't even imagine what was so horrible in there that they felt compelled to jump.

[cinFLA]

For the life of me I can't understand jumping out the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely, to be so without hope or faith that I would give up and take a plunge like that. I tried to put myself mental in their situation, but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

Think of the intense pain suffered prior to the jump. When your skin is melting and all you want is relief from the pain.

[jon1972]

"I just can't imagine jumping out of the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely".... When your standig in a window tortured by hot flames and unspeakable pain, you certainly have to get used to the idea of jumping

[jon1972]

"I just can't imagine jumping out of the window. I just couldn't bring myself to give up so completely".... When your standig in a window tortured by hot flames and unspeakable pain, you certainly have to get used to the idea of jumping

[MissAmericanPie]

They jumped because it was the only hope left, behind them was certain death scorching their backs, their hair, in front of them lay the possibility of a miracle and a few more seconds of life.

We do tend to forget, and we do need to be reminded. We especially need to be reminded that nothing, zero, nadda, zip, of any real consequence has been done to prevent another event to need to be reminded of.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

but I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump.

These people had 2 choices. Jump or burn. That's it. Anyone that had a chance of fighting their way out would not have jumped.

[CDHart]

"I would rather die fighting to get out than to jump."

They didn't have that choice. It was a choice between burning alive and jumping to their deaths.

Carolyn