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

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

[mountaineer]

1st class is at 9:30..
off the 2 train at 9:35
people are running in the street
something's wrong

i look up
at my familiar friends
theyre on fire
oh god

smells like smoke
screaming sirens
screaming people
with fear on their faces
"its gonna fall"
someone shouts

oh sh*t

im scared now
vision getting blurry
shaking hands
try to dial dad
the crowd is parting for me it seems
i dont have to look up
no service

im coughing and crying
on the sidewalk
a man asks if im alright
hes standing with some people
looking up
theyre clearly all strangers
become comrades
in a time of mass confusion

i told him about my mom
she works there sometimes
please say shes not up there
trapped
burning up
i didnt speak to her today

have you spoken to her?
the man asked
he put his hand on my shoulder
hes a stranger
but feels like dad

"you can see them jumping"
somebody said.
i looked
up there
a gaping hole
torn metal
fire raging out of windows
its hell on earth
there were people
jumping out
slowly tumbling
humans
people
with families
and thoughts
ideas
goals
and theyre going to die now
theyre dead now
imagine
imagine how bad it must be inside
to make someone jump out

groups of people
holding hands
jumping
falling
i cried for them
witnessing their last moments

a rumble
crashing glass
the street gasped
our stomachs dropped
the tower
the indestructable tower
giving way
in slow motion
collapsed

baby steps into the nearest open store
a pub
im shaking still
tears still
trembling voice
"can i use your phone"
the bartender dials for me
gives me the phone
and a glass of water
dad says mom is safe
uptown
and he spoke to her

exhale

now i know what really matters

09.17.01
Author anonymous

http://www.nycstories.com/911/10/index.html

[MEG33]

May they rest in the arms of God.

[wolficatZ]

A MUSIC FANS' ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED AT WTC
Interview by Tony

 

"..Then I realized before I moved on that I could see people in the holes, which I guess had been windows before, and they seemed to be waving. I don't know if they were waving or fanning themselves or whatever and I thought; "My god, get OUT of there! You gotta get out!" And I took another picture or two, I don't really remember, and I walked thinking I still have to go to work, and I walked around Fulton to Broadway and then down Broadway towards my building on Cortland and Broadway and Church. When I got to the next corner and had a straight view, I looked back at the building and that's when I saw something fall. I thought it was falling off the building. I followed it with my eyes down and when it got halfway down, I realized it wasn't something... it was someone.

I saw it crash onto the plaza and I said, "Oh my god, that was a person!" I just couldn't believe that I saw that. Then I saw other people waving out the windows and I thought "My god, we're just standing here watching this like we're watching a TV show or movie or something! There are people in there!" They obviously couldn't get out. I didn't know what to do. Then I thought, "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!" I felt like; "How could this be?"

Then I walked the next block to the next street and I saw more people jumping out of the window and then I saw what they were doing! I had kept thinking "If I were there, I wouldn't jump! Would I? That would be stupid! You know you're going to be dead." Then I saw exactly what they were doing. In previous years when they had the rock concerts at the World Trade Center they just had this little flat stage which was probably on wheels which just folds up and they can roll it away. But this year, they had built this BIG stage with sides and a back, and a roof like a tent. Then I realized that when I just saw one after the other, after the other...I realized that they were trying to save their lives by jumping onto that, almost like you were jumping into a safety net...but from eighty floors up...it wasn't going to make any difference! I saw one after the other jump and hit the top of the tent and just bounce off! I can't believe it, but I guess I would have done that too because at least it's a chance, you know? Then I saw one go right through the roof of the tent, and I remember I just moaned! I stood there and I just moaned, and this woman came up to me and grabbed my arm. I never saw her before, I'm sure I'm never going to see her again, and she just very sweetly took my arm and she said, "We don't need to see that.""

[King Prout]

that is excellent. thanks for posting it.

[Libertina]

Oddly calm looking... what a terrible day, and as I look back, I think how smart and brave our President was in his responses. Thank God for him AND our warning wake-up call. It could have been worse.

[MEG33]

Thank you for this post.NEVER FORGET!

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

I happened to read the article in my magazine at home this morning. As I understand it, the author seems to be making the point that once you have jumped from the building, you are now considered a suicide. The fact that you are trying to flee a burning inferno has nothing to do with it. You are a suicide.

Some people consider suicide shameful. The family in the article said: "My [GIVES NAME] would never do something like that. He would never commit suicide. He would never leave his family." They see the act of jumping, in that situation, as a willful act; that the jumper was "leaving" the family, in some way. Again, no thought as to the burning inferno that was compelling him to try and flee, or that was compelling him to seek relief in the open-air.

The jumpers probably never even thought about what would happen to them once they jumped out of the window. They didn't think that far ahead. How could they? They just jumped - to escape the heat, the tangled mess, their certain doom.

These jumpers were IN NO WAY suicides. Their choice was to die in a raging inferno, or die in the open-air. Because they chose one over the other doesn't make them a suicide. At that point, I don't even think it was a conscious choice. They were just trying to escape. Perhaps there was a glimmer of hope that they might even be saved by jumping.

Peter Cheney, the journalist who went to the funeral specifically to show the Falling Man's picture to the grieving familly, is an idiot. His newspaper, the Toronto Globe and Mail, should have fired him for that.

[habs4ever]

I read the July2002 report of the communications failures present onsite at the WTC, and the police chopper at the WTC hovered about 15 floors below the top on WTC 1 and issued an immediate evacuation to all personnel onsite at about 10:11 am.They said the building inside was glowing RED...and it was going to come down shortly.Cops got the message but the firecrews never did :(

That tells you what it was like inside.

[frodolives]

Let's have this photo, and others like it, published in every newspaper in the world, as a reminder of what the terrorists can do to them, too. Let's get the rest of the civilized world back on track. (Maybe THEY can help find Osama)

[segis]

I remember reading this article in WSJ online the next day. It was a very painful and difficult article to read.

There was another article in WSJ a few days later that was about the airlines and how they reacted to the horror that day. It was a good one too.

[LizardQueen]

These jumpers were IN NO WAY suicides. Their choice was to die in a raging inferno, or die in the open-air. Because they chose one over the other doesn't make them a suicide

Exactly.

And many people's religions consider suicide a mortal sin. For those people they would probably rather not know that their loved one went out the window, so as not to have to consider the possibility that their beloved ended up in hell.

LQ

[cajungirl]

That story was heartbreaking. I think I would have to know if my loved one jumped, I would have to see the pic, sort of like if they died that way, it would be the least I could do, to look at what happened. I hope that woman was comforted by the fact that they were together, I would be. This is sad beyond all telling.

[Wolfstar]

While I distrust the Saudis, your insult to Colin Powell — and, by extension, to the President and Vice President — is disgraceful and deeply dishonorable.

[backhoe]

I don't like this article.

Me, too.

It has a sort of over-intellectualized, psychobabble creepiness that totally rubs me the wrong way.

[King Prout]

All of those who died in this way were MURDERED. Once the murderers slammed the planes into the towers, the imminent deaths of the victims were inevitable.

These "jumpers" did not choose to die - they merely chose how. In the case of the "Falling Man" doing so with consummate dignity.

[Wolfstar]

I agree with you. The event was not antiseptic. It was terrible beyond all imagining. Those who died or were injured suffered through the worst of it. The least we can do is be witnesses to what happened so we can pass the truth on to future generations.

It wasn't a disaster. It wasn't a run-of-the-mill murder mystery. It wasn't a tragedy in the broad sense. It wasn't a calamity. It wasn't an Act of God. IT WAS AN ATTACK! An attack on you. An attack on me. IT WAS MASS MURDER ON A MONSTROUS SCALE! Never forget and leave the forgiving to the Lord.

[cajungirl]

I don't think there is a soul who would call this "suicide",,and anyone who would even think this was a mortal sin, jumping for any reason from that building, is beyond redemption. Does anyone here have the slightest doubt that whatever the reason for jumping, that this was a mortal sin? does anyone think that? I cannot conceive of anyone's God thinking any one of those people had committed a sin on this horrible day.

[Spunky]

"He brought his print of Drew's photograph with him and showed it to Jacqueline Hernandez, the oldest of Norberto's three daughters. She looked briefly at the picture, then at Cheney, and ordered him to leave."

"What Cheney remembers her saying, in her anger, in her offended grief: "That piece of shit is not my father."

It had never occured to me that a family member would rather think their loved one had suffered a horrible death by burning in a fire, than having them jump to their death, believing this to be suicide.

I personally do not think any of these people said or thought, I don't want to live anymore therefore I am going to chose my way of death.

I do believe their only thought was that they could not breath and they knew air was out there and in order to get some they went out.

[Milligan]

I thought it was powerful and moving. We must remember those who didn't ask to die that day.

[duckbutt]

Very true - pulling a hand or body part away from a hot pot is a function of the involuntary muscles. And to run from heat is instinctual. Conclusion: these people didn't commit suicide, they were murdered. I hope the families don't bother themselves too much about the eternal fate of their family members or friends - - no compassionate Lord would every condemn these poor folks to hell because they committed suicide. This wasn't suicide.....