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bookmarked.

I was struck dumb with admiration for the man when first I saw the record of his flight, two years ago.
But me no buts: That man was flying... his strength, grace, and composure shining in every grim line.
I hope that I may die so well as he.

All in all, I think the article is a moving testament to the people who jumped that horrible day. It returns a bit of dignity to people who faced something too terrifying for most of us to even contemplate. And because it returns dignity to those victims, it steals from the ululating woman and her kind, whatever moral victory they think they achieved.

Man, what an incredible story. Thanks for posting. Let's Roll!

bttt

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.

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.

"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.

My friend's husband was at at the adjoining 7WTC building on 9/11. As he got out of the building he had to step around and over body parts.

Never Forget. Never FOrgive

I can't imagine the horror of being a witness to so many people jumping. I hope I never understand the thoughts of those who did jump.

I think this is a beautiful article. What happened that day should be remembered constantly. But too many want to see only the big picture, when so many little pictures were also there that day, and they are just as memorable.

This is the most moving article I have read out of all of them.
What a shame it is that these victims must be censored so that we can all feel better about that dreadful day two years ago. They deserve better, and so do we.

mark

"As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." - Abraham Lincoln

This article was a solemn tribute to the Falling Man. It is amazing some people cannot see that.

The photo is fascinating because it gives us hope that a man transcended his fate, as inevitable as it was, and by implication (for us) defied the hatred and violence which caused it.

Maybe, probably, it was just circumstance for his body to have assumed such a deliberate position. Just the physics of his fall.

But maybe he understood what was happening and for a couple seconds expressed himself in his fall to death ... maybe he was saying to himself ... "be composed."

It is the opposite of disrepectful ... it is utterly respectful ... to accord the Falling Man with an heroic dignity.

The New York Times said 50 people fell to their deaths from both towers. The figure was based on what their reporters counted from their video footage.

USA Today, using also eyewitness reports and forensic evidence, said at least 200 people fell.

Esquire claimed the New York's Medical Examiner's Office was not forthcoming with figures on those who fell. “I decided to walk closer to the South Tower. I was about 100 ft from the South Tower looking up when the bodies started coming down. I counted 35. They were just piling up on the Marriott Marquis hotel. They were 10 to 15 thick piling up one after another. You could hear them hitting on the side streets. They were hitting cars, and there were lots of explosions.
“I have seen plenty of death in my life, and burned bodies and so forth, but this was incredible. As I was looking up, I saw a body coming down, hit a lamppost and explode like a paint ball. Its arms and legs got torn off and the head ripped off and bounced right by me.”
“Then I started hearing stories around the fire department. Like a guy working on the 110th floor who was also a fireman. He called his wife and said, ‘If I stay here, I am going to burn. But if I jump, they will find my body and you will get a death certificate, and everything will be fine. If I burn, you may not get a death certificate.’ Then he said goodbye and jumped.”

Jeff Birnbaum, president of Broadway Electrical Supply Co

I know this is somewhat off of the subject, but does anyone remember the minister who was flying out of NYC well before 9/11/01, that had a vision of 9/11.

I have dug through the archives, but with no luck finding the article.

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,

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.

For later

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.

"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.