In yesterdays post, I linked to some rather disturbing audio of two victims of the attack on the World Trade Center 20 years ago during their last moments on earth. I also posted a picture that’s come to be known as “The Falling Man”, depicting one of those many WTC victims who chose to exit the building on their own terms rather than wait for the fate that they knew was coming. The photographer behind The Falling Man, Richard Drew, was initially criticized for snapping that one second in The Falling Man’s life as he was approaching his death. Newspapers were also under fire for running the photo, so therefore it ran only once in most papers here in the United States.
I never came across it myself until about 2009 while doing research for this blog. I found it shocking and disturbing. Even so, I see it as another memorial to those who died, much like the memorial wall above at Ground Zero. The photo above was taken on my last visit there in July 2006, so I don’t know whether or not it still stands now that there’s a permanent memorial at Ground Zero and the Freedom Tower that opened in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Memorials serve not just to pay tribute to those who passed away, but they’re important for the living. It’s especially important now as those of you too young to remember are being told by some powerful people that another day in more recent history was worse than that day 20 years ago.
That’s a lie.
As September 11, 2001 gets further and further in the past, we need to be reminded, at least once a year of what happened and what those people went through. Not just the people whose last dramatic moments were caught on film or audio tape, but everybody who was lost: the rescue workers, who walked up into the towers, as others were going down towards safety—and life. The passengers on the 3 flights that flew into the towers and into the Pentagon who may not have had much time at all to face their deaths. The passengers on Flight 93 who did, and decided to go out fighting–and prevented more loss of life on the ground. The workers at the Pentagon who were taken in an instant as they sat at their desks… and those people who’ve since passed away from illnesses caused by working among the debris at Ground Zero. And those they left behind who miss their presence every day, and even the people watching in horror on the streets of New York that day who still may be struggling with the emotional pain of being there and surviving. All of these deserve to be remembered, yesterday, today and always.
Liberty Belle Blog 