I found this article – “Falling Bodies, a 9/11 Image Etched in Pain” intensely painful to read … but I also felt compelled to finish it.
It wrenches up the soul to think of the people who fell, or who jumped. It haunts me. As I know it haunts many others. It horrifies me, in such a deep I’m-an-infant-having-a-nightmare kind of way, that my brain tries to protect me from getting near enough to it to contemplate.
One horrible anecdote:
Police helicopter pilots have described feeling helpless as they hovered along the buildings, watching the people who piled four and five deep into the windows, 1,300 feet in the air. Some held hands as they jumped. Others went alone. As the numbers grew, said Joseph Pfeifer, a fire battalion chief in the north tower lobby, he tried to make an announcement over the building’s public address system, not realizing it had been destroyed.
“Please don’t jump,” he said. “We’re coming up for you.”
Almost instinctually on Sept. 11, people recognized that they had an unfortunate view into an intensely private matter, an unseemly intrusion not just into someone’s death, but into the moment of their dying. American broadcast networks generally avoided showing people falling. A sculpture that depicted a victim, known as “Tumbling Woman,” was removed from display at Rockefeller Center after one week.
Some commentators later remarked that those who had fallen had made one brave final decision to take control of how they would perish. Researchers say many people had no choice. Witness accounts suggest that some people were blown out. Others fell in the crush at the windows as they struggled for air. Still others simply recoiled, reflexively, from the intense heat.
God rest their innocent souls.
Thank you for that Sheila, I think all Americans should read that.
I’m reading “The Histories” by Herdodtus and ran across this passage this morning. I can picture this image of some Greeks choosing to jump from the heights of the Acropolis all to well now…
“There is a place in front of the Acropolis, behind the way up to the gates, where the ascent is so steep that no guard was set, because it was not thought possible that any man would be able to climg it; here, by the shrine of Cecrops’ daughter Aglaurus, some soldiers managed to scramble up the precipitous face of the cliff. When the Athenians saw them on the summit, some leapt from the wall to their death, others sought sanctuary in the inner shrine of the temple; but the Persians who had got up first made straight for the gates, flung them open and slaughtered those in sanctuary.”
9/11
Since other people are much better at these kinds of things than I am, I offer 9/11 posts from others.
I highly reccomend Jodi’s post about hearing about the attack from Kyrgyzstan (she was one of those evacuated along with us from Uzbekistan). I …
9/11
Since other people are much better at these kinds of things than I am, I offer 9/11 posts from others.
I highly reccomend Jodi’s post about hearing about the attack from Kyrgyzstan (she was one of those evacuated along with us from Uzbekistan). I …
The Fall
Sheila at Redheaded Ramblings has a very interesting entry today. (Not to say that all her entries aren’t interesting because they ARE!!!) Here is an excerpt from this article that you should read: Almost instinctually on Sept. 11, people recognized…
That was stunning. Absolutely stunning. I’m ashamed to admit, I had forgotten that today was an anniversary until I read your Blog, Sheila. I feel awful about it, but thank you for reminding me. Been trapped in rehearsal way too long.
I’ll have my own vigil before the night’s out. Thank you again, Shelia. And God Bless the Falling People.
they were angels in their last moments
two and three people holding hands together
i try to imagine that at least in their final moments
there was one giant burst of freedom as they took to flight
i try to think that maybe some of them
had one small piece of beauty
as they flew
i try to think this way
because it helps me
i think of them flying
i think of them
never
ever landing