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

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

[Leroy S. Mort]

Bump for 9/11/04

[Quix]

Thanks.

Following is my response sent to the author:

---

GREAT ARTICLE, Mr Junod.

THANKS enormously. It has moved me more than any other 911 message or image.

I was sitting in Taipei in my apartment watching CNN and FREEPING on FreeRepublic.com when it started happening. I watched it all live as long as I could stay awake [Where I was teaching English as a self-supporting missionary; 55 years old then, PhD clinical psych].

PERSONALLY, I believe that ALL the photos of ALL the jumpers need to be collected into a viewable collection--probably on the net. Those not wanting to view them, needn't.

I think it would be a grand project for some university or college class--perhaps of photo journalists or detectives or some such--historians.

COLLECT ALL THE PHOTOS AND ALL THE AVAILABLE INFO ABOUT THE INDIVIDUALS.

It probably doesn't matter enormously whether people jumped as a last dying flame of despair or as a last flare of freedom and choice. I suspect more often, it was the latter.

Flying free for 10 seconds vs dying excruciatingly from burning or gasping for unbreathable breath--I can understand that.

Regardless, the phenomenon is a VERY HUMAN ONE. It is a blazing, brazen testimony of HUMANNESS.

And, in a sense, it is a blazing, brazen, bold . . . beautiful . . . leap into eternity

rather than a passively futile whimper into the ashes piling up so inexorably.

If anything, it seems to me, their courageous flights into eternity need to be celebrated, broadcast, held up

as beacons of personhood . . .

beacons of seized CHOICE in the face of satanic theft of choice . . .

beacons of audaciously firm grips on their selected mode of Graduation from one sphere to another . . .

beacons of soaring, regardless of gravity, in an eternal arc into the arms of God.

It seems hideous, to me, to try and stifle such courage. It seems a travesty, to me, to hide such away as though it's less than exalted glory.

Yes. I understand the horror--the supreme horror. I understand the pain of loved ones--as well as one can, not part of it--though we are all part of it.

But what right does anyone have to squelch such outrageous acts of terminal, blazing LIFE?

What right does anyone have to squelch such outrageous acts of very personal, very individual, terminal, blazing acts of FREEDOM in the face of unspeakable terror, horror?

They flew the flags of their lives as best they could with the options left. Let us that remain give wind to their sails with soberness, with respect--but also with our own meager boldness in the face of their skies full of it. Let us honor them with a vivid publication of the whole tableau.

How can we do less in behalf of such courage?
How can we do less in behalf of such furious flames of life?
How can we do less in behalf of such exaltant moments of fanatical freedom?

How can we do less than to display, to look and to applaud?

. . .

. . .

I have compassion for the relatives. But the relatives were not presented with the horrid options. The jumpers were.

And, I, for one, believe that their AWE-FUL choice well deserves a fitting, sobered, loving celebration.

THANKS Tom, Thanks tons, for touching me so deeply with your article [tears].

God's best to you and your family,

[normy]

That sounds like it would make a good Dem motto " Embrace Your Fate"

[Quix]

Uhhhh,

hello?

ART is about highlighting, emphasizing, interpreting, focusing

LIFE

AND

DEATH.

The one reverberates educationally back and forth with the other in an enlightening feedback-loop.

If one can't handle the intensity of the communication--look away.

Other people may be enlivened, encouraged, edified, lifted, focused TOWARD GREATER LIFE by even excruciatingly startling artistic depictions of unspeakably horrid death.

If you're not up to that, so be it. But please avoid denigrating others who might be up to it.

[Quix]

I can understand that a certain piece of art is not to your taste.

I wholesale disagree with your description.

I find your description crass and the article beautifully touching--reached my heart in a way no other 911 whatever has.

I can't tell from your response whether your heart is too brittle to venture being the least bit open to the article--or too stone cold.

[Quix]

Perhaps after purchasing the Koran . . . drop by a pig farm or a pet shop and 'borrow' some pig poop.

Decorate the Koran.

Then burn.

[Quix]

WELL PUT.

[Quix]

Too much truth in that!

[petercooper]

[Quix]

GOOD IDEA!

Perhaps an embellishment?

Shoot holes in Koran.

Fill holes with pig poop.

Give to a radical Jihadi by anonymous mailing or perhaps through a parked car with an open window.

[Quix]

Don't recall for sure.

I believe Times Square pastor David Wilkerson had some sense of warning before 911 and shared it with his church. May be on his website.

[Quix]

Thanks.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome.

Sobering.

God have mercy on them and on us

. . .

and may the Jihadi's relive every second of every person's horror relentlessly for a very long time.

[Lockbar]

Last year I copied that picture of falling man and used my color printer to make a copy. I carry it in my wallet. It represents everybody that went to work that day and never came home. When this one wears out, and will print another one. I carry it to counter any idiot I might come across who doesn't understand what we are fighting for. I will pull it out, and shove it in his face, and will say we are fighting for this man, right here!. I will carry this picture till the day I die.

[Salvation]

For later

[monkey]

James Dickey is known for the best-seller Deliverance, but he was primarily a poet, considered the best in the country at one time.

His most famous poem is Falling, based on a real story about a stewardess who falls from an airplane. She rips her clothes off because she doesn't want to die in a stewardess outfit.

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[JulieRNR21]

"Maybe he didn't jump at all, because no one can jump into the arms of God.

Oh, no. You have to fall."




Thank you for posting this.....WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

[auggy]

"At 8:46 tomorrow, I will be standing under an American Flag, burning a koran."

That's what we all should do.