So because the author himself didn't do this I shouldn't be enraged by it's utter lack of decency?
But should those calls be made? Should those questions be asked? Would they only heap pain upon the already anguished? Would they be regarded as an insult to the memory of the dead, the way the Hernandez family regarded the imputation that Norberto Hernandez was the Falling Man? Or would they be regarded as steps to some act of redemptive witness?
What tripe. Sure, call up the families and say "I'm trying to find out if your loved one bailed off the roof, as I'm trying to provide an act of redemptive witnessing". What utter presumptuous self-serving horseshit.
If the families of the victims wish to investigate the final moments of the lives of the lost loved ones, that is their right and I respect them for it. The offer to investigate should be made to all family members, where they can accept or decline at will. And their decision to know or not know SHOULD BE RESPECTED.
But to be dragged in, unwillingly, into an investigation such as some of the people in this article were is awful. Especially when it's posed as a lofty goal such as "redemptive witness" that we should all partake of, whether we think it's appropriate or not.
This is why I'm opposed to broadcasting detailed pictures of the jumpers. If you lost someone that day, how would you feel if you saw the face of your husband, your wife, your daughter, your son, broadcast as he went off the side of the building, over and over and over and over again, every September for the next 20 years?
Show us enough anonymous footage to keep us pissed off, I'm fine with that (and seem to be doing well enough in that department even without extra video). But dammit, we have to respect the families and friends of the lost instead of continuing to pick at the scabs they're trying to form over and over again.
That statue in Rockefeller Center pissed me off royally, too. Not because of the subject matter, but partially because of the timing and MOSTLY because of the placement. The installers and artists said they were doing it so no one would forget.
Like anyone from NY can EVER forget! If anything, they remember too much, and the last thing they needed was for the horrors of that day to be thrown back in their face, in the middle of a recreational area such as Rockefeller Plaza.
Put it in the middle of LA for crying out loud, where those self-important jackasses in Hollywood can look at it and maybe understand what we went through that day.
We're obviously not going to agree on this - while the article did make some good points (the end, mostly) the behaviour of some of those in it I abhor.
LQ
P.S. When the photog started taking masks off the ambulance so he could continue to shoot did it ever occur to him that maybe the rescue workers would need those?