And I support remembrances. We must remember.
What I don't support are the images that emotionalize, sanitize or minimize the truth of that attack. Beautiful waving national flags, a tearful statute of liberty with the smoky towers behind her, the struggles of the heroes to save lives ... those images do not show the terror, the desperation and the horror experienced by the innocent lives trapped in those burning buildings. To remember that day with vanilla patriotic images fades the stark truth. It separates us carefully and gently from the actual ugly event.
I don't think we should do that.
This is the image
we should hold in our minds.
Remember
this man!
Remember
that some people jumped to certain death
rather than stay in the inferno of those buildings.
Remember
that as our innocent citizens fell from the building
they knew with certainty that these were their last seconds of life on earth ...
approximately 10 seconds ...
approximately 10 seconds ...
Remember
that those on the ground below
will never forget the terrible thudding sounds of bodies hitting pavement
one after another - over and over - about 200 times.
If this post makes you upset, uncomfortable, angry, or sad, then I have achieved my goal.
We must never forget the real images.
This is how we do honor to those who died in that attack.
Remember.
Post Script:
- My last blog post on 9-11 was September 2012. The title was Jumpers.
- From the reading I have done - it appears that the New York chief medical examiner's office does not consider these people "jumpers." Jumping indicates a choice and would imply suicide. These people did not have a choice probably because of the force of the explosion, the fire behind them and the lack of breathable air. Because of these conditions the deaths were ruled homicide. It is a small but merciful distinction. They most certainly were murdered.
3 comments:
Haunting and terrible and most certainly homicide.
I think deciding to jump instead of stay in the building would have been a horrible choice to make. I don't think I could have chosen 'jumping'. But that is just me. The image I will always associate with this day is a little red wagon. And I love to display a waving American flag. To me that symbolizes that even though they tried to bring us down, they didn't!! Thoughtful post today, Elaine!
Perfect. I almost didn't stop by today to read your thoughts on 9/11 as I remember the fears of that day in a personal way. That day as I watched the footage I looked at my son who had decided to join the Army. I feared this would lead us into war and he would become a part of it. My memories of Vietnam and the struggles of those soldiers who returned haunted me. Then we heard a plane had been turned back and was crossing out state. I had no idea how close to my town it would be so we went outside to watch the skies. We pulled out children close to us, mine being teens for once didn't want to stray from the safety of family to be with their friends. I was fortunate that day. I home schooled so my children were home with me, others rushed out to pick their children up, some couldn't as schools were locked down and they had to sit in fear knowing they couldn't get to their kids. Mostly, I am fortunate in that my son did end up in combat in this war on terror but came home to us.
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