The Falling Man. Do you remember this photograph? (The man who jumped from World Trade Towers)

esquire ^ | September 2003, Volume 140, | By Tom Junod

[Blzbba]

"In lieu of a koran, is burning magazine and newspaper photos of Beelzebubba and Hitlery an acceptable alternative? "


What the hell did I do?! What papers am I in?

:)

[Blzbba]

"In lieu of a koran, is burning magazine and newspaper photos of Beelzebubba and Hitlery an acceptable alternative? "


What the hell did I do?! What papers am I in?

:)

[Wolfstar]

I think it's true that many fell, but many also jumped with material improvised as parachutes. They were desperately trying to live, not die. Others may indeed have chosen a jump over death by fire. What we don't know, aside from the fire, is what it was like inside those upper floors. Were there sounds or motions from the building that clued people into the fact that the buildings might collapse? Some folks probably had hope of being rescued right up until that point. And how many lived through much of the collapse as the debris tore at their bodies? We'll never know, of course. But I want my contemplation of the torture they experienced to rekindle my fury. God help any politician who gets in the way of winning this war on terrorism, because I sure won't!!!

By the way, it isn't widely known, but a number of children died in the 9/11 attacks. There was a group of kids on a trip to California from a Washington, DC school on the flight that was crashed into the Pentagon. Over the weekend, the Discovery/Times channel ran a special about the Pentagon attack. They profiled one man who lost friends and co-workers on the ground in that attack, and whose 11-year-old son was on the plane that hit the building.

[southern cross forever]

True dat! makes sense.

[Concentrate]

Now let's see: You are in an oven about 800-2000 degrees. Ouch! To jump is an instinct, not a decision to make in most cases. Just as one recoils from the touch of a hot pot on the stove, these poor folks just jumped, out of its way, to their deaths.

There was nowhere else to go but away from the severe burning sensation.

[Skooz]

I couldn't agree with you more. For the media to censor these images is an absolute dereliction of their duty as professional journalists. The lowest rung of hell is reserved for them. Their intentions are not to protect the families but rather to prevent the tsunami of patriotism which would sweep away forever their precious dreams of global socialism.

BINGO! They know full well that whenever we see those images, our reaction is to kick terrorist butt. That bothers them so they hide the pictures.

[cyncooper]

I just read all the replies posted (91 or so) and was surprised so many were turned off. I wept reading most of it. I thought it very moving. Especially:

THEY BEGAN JUMPING NOT LONG after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died. They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building's fatal wound. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors—the top. For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced. Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands. They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds. They were all, obviously, not just killed when they landed but destroyed, in body though not, one prays, in soul. One hit a fireman on the ground and killed him; the fireman's body was anointed by Father Mychal Judge, whose own death, shortly thereafter, was embraced as an example of martyrdom after the photograph—the redemptive tableau—of firefighters carrying his body from the rubble made its way around the world.

From the beginning, the spectacle of doomed people jumping from the upper floors of the World Trade Center resisted redemption. They were called "jumpers" or "the jumpers," as though they represented a new lemminglike class. The trial that hundreds endured in the building and then in the air became its own kind of trial for the thousands watching them from the ground. No one ever got used to it; no one who saw it wished to see it again, although, of course, many saw it again. Each jumper, no matter how many there were, brought fresh horror, elicited shock, tested the spirit, struck a lasting blow. Those tumbling through the air remained, by all accounts, eerily silent; those on the ground screamed. It was the sight of the jumpers that prompted Rudy Giuliani to say to his police commissioner, "We're in uncharted waters now." It was the sight of the jumpers that prompted a woman to wail, "God! Save their souls! They're jumping! Oh, please God! Save their souls!" And it was, at last, the sight of the jumpers that provided the corrective to those who insisted on saying that what they were witnessing was "like a movie," for this was an ending as unimaginable as it was unbearable: Americans responding to the worst terrorist attack in the history of the world with acts of heroism, with acts of sacrifice, with acts of generosity, with acts of martyrdom, and, by terrible necessity, with one prolonged act of—if these words can be applied to mass murder—mass suicide.

[Skooz]

Before we were married, my wife let someone borrow her car. The guy went for a joyride and we called the cops. The cops pulled up behind us as we sat in the driveway in my car at 2:00 am. We were praying that everything would be ok and that the guy would just bring her car back. We prayed for about 30 minutes.

The police report said that we were "making out."

[AppyPappy]

I believe it wasn't. Post a link please.

[cyncooper]

I think it's true that many fell, but many also jumped with material improvised as parachutes. They were desperately trying to live, not die.

That was noted in the article, too:

"Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands."

[eyespysomething]

One of the firemen said later, "How bad does it have to be up there to make jumping the better alternative?"

That's what always chokes me up - I can't imagine how terrible it was to think the best way out is to jump. I just can't imagine that. ** wiping tears **

God bless their souls.

[Wolfstar]

On the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon, there was a group of kids from a Washington, DC school on their way to California — 7th graders, I believe. What kind of cold, empty-hearted bastards would take a plane with a bunch of school kids on it, and crash it into a building in which at least some of those kids' parents work? One Navy man lost his best friend and a number of his co-workers in the Pentagon attack — and his 11-year-old son was on the plane that was used to hit that building. I am not normally a hater, but...

[mr.pink]

Jumping up and down is excitement...but not necessarily celebration.

But that of course could have been easily explained and understood by law enforcement....obviously these gentlmen's explanation didn't quite pass the smell test, thus they were held for close to 70 days.

I'd sure love to see their videotape with the million dollar question being whether or not they captured the first plane hitting the North Tower....I'm sure you would agree that viewing it would settle matters.

[bethelgrad]

My thoughts too. But the thought of suffocating or burning also terrifies me.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Thanks for posting this article.

[montag813]

No, don't hide the truth from us. Only the images can tell the truth.

The Press does not want you to see the truth, because it might make you "too" mad, and you might want revenge against the people who did this.

The people can never be told the real truth, for instance....

THE REAL "AXIS OF EVIL"...

[mr.pink]

Sure...

[Fester Chugabrew]

This article is thought provoking from start to finish. Couldn't stop once I started reading it. Brings home some of the soul searching one must face in light of the horrors. OTOH, I can see why some folks would be provoked by it. Hey, when it comes to this kind of stuff we all react differently, and perhaps unpredictably. I tend to think the folks who jumped did so out of a sheer craving for relief from pain; more instinctive than thoughtful.

[Braak]

This article took a horrible thing, and trivalized it. I give the woman who told the photographer off a lot of credit. Who cares who it is! The fact remains, he was a victim of a terrorist attack by a sick thug and a madman (Osama)who claims he "doesn't want to kill" and in the same breath promises more of the same.

I say drain the D#$N swamp. Put Wahabbism on the historical rustheap with communism and Nazism. We go find these Wahabbis, whereever they are, and kill them all. No mercy. Because, folks, I am very convinced it really is us or them, they certainly see it that way.

"We'll be safe when they are dead."

[SeeRushToldU_So]

bttt