This is one picture that should be published in every newspaper on the 11th.

"However much we are affected by the things of the world, however deeply they may stir and stimulate us, they become human for us only when we can discuss them with our fellows...We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it, and in the course of speaking of it, we learn to be human.
---Hannah Arendt

I remember watching TV live as 9/11 was unfolding, and being horribly surprised to see the people jump . . .

How many people are hanging out of windows? And this is just one corner of one of the buildings! How horrific. How sad. How ENRAGING!!!
Never forget, never cease until of all the islamofascists are killed.

Imagine clinging to the side of the building, 1300 feet up, your lungs full of smoke and the wind whipping around you. Here's what your view would have been:

[Link: www.public.asu.edu...]

Anyone who visited the Trade Center for business or pleasure will remember being drawn to the windows and the gut-knotting view. What would it be like to fall from this height? Your brain asked this question almost involuntarily. Imagine now that you worked there. How often did you think about that fall? Perhaps you were always aware of it on some level. Just being near those windows made most people a bit quesy. Leaning against them was terrifying. Look at this picture . . . there are people leaning out, holding on with one hand in high winds . . . terror all around . . . your friends and even guys you may not have liked now facing certain death with you . . . right next to you. You've already seen people you know die in the most horrific circumstances . . . and there's nothing below.

Islamic fascists planned this. They wanted this to happen. They were probably overjoyed at the scale of their success. There are people out there right now thinking if only the plane had hit lower . . . even MORE infidels would have had to jump.

This was no natural disaster. This was intended.

This September 11 we must insure that there are profound unintended consequences.

If possible try to purchase this months Paris Match. There are a few terrible photos that we North Americans have not seen.

Islamic fascists planned this. They wanted this to happen. They were probably overjoyed at the scale of their success.

Of course they were, they were dancing in the streets (which is why I still say that the Palestinians should get NOTHING from us). See Charles' next post.

I have stood at the top of the south tower and will never in my life forget it.

Never forget. Destroy the enemy-TODAY!

I grew up in public housing across the bay from the WTC, and I avidly followed the construction of the towers with the kind of excitement only an eleven year old can bring to such things. The twin towers represented a kind of limitless possibility to me then: they went from nothing to massive reality literally before my eyes. Their destruction has had an equally profound effect on me. When I was a boy the structures themselves amazed me; now, of course, it's the experiences of the people who suffered and died there that affect me.

re Paris Match article:

The website may not have the photos Ibrahim mentioned, but read the article at the following link. [Link: www.parismatch.com...]

I ran it through Babelfish because I can read enough French to get the gist but good enough to translate. I found the following from the article rather interesting.

"See these photographs one year after, anniversary day, it is of course to revive the emotion. This one should not disappear from the memories. It does not prevent the cold comment or the analyses relentless on the insufficiencies of the American diplomacy and disordered agitations of president Bush who dreams of revenge by pointing finger awkwardly the Saddam disaster. But this emotion, awaked by these images, points out essence, the horror of the original act, just like the shown again images of Auschwitz or of Hiroshima are the watchtowers of the universal memory.
Never not to forget. To re-examine. To look at unceasingly to remember that one day of the men became insane, that they dared to make an attack, a crime against the Humanity, that the world, this day, rocked in the incomprehensible one, changed reference mark, of morals, of time. We have been there for one year.
These images taken by the inhabitants of New York are exhibits, ineffaceable testimonys of this first day of a new History. They are immortal."

The photos can be viewed at [Link: hereisnewyork.org...]

Just Lurking,

Those photos are unbelievable.

Look at this one...

[Link: hereisnewyork.org...]

I've never seen this one before.

bJuan (#8): I grew up in northern Bergen County (Closter, in Northern Valley). You have eloquently expressed exactly what my sentiments were at the same time (I am probably only a couple of years older than you) and my sadness and emptiness now.

I was in Denver that morning, visiting my best friend who grew up on Long Island. She was up early nursing her baby while watching CNN. She came to my room to wake me to tell me that a plane had hit the WTC and they weren't sure yet whether it was an accident or an attack. We chatted for a few minutes about how it must have been an accident, and then we returned together to the livingroom just in time to watch in real time as the second plane hit. We both knew then what had happened, and we both started going through all the people we knew who might be affected, including her sister's father-in-law (safe--left his office across the street after the first plane hit) and another dear friend of mine (safe, but sent me the most frightening e-mail about her eperience coming out of the subway into the WTC just after the first plane hit, and going from shelter to shelter in lower Manhattan as each event occurred.)

We stayed glued to the TV and tried to get as many calls out as possible. When the Pentagon was hit, I tried to reach my boyfriend back in San Diego, who is a civilian employee of the Naval Space and Warfare Command. I was unable to reach him at home, work, or on cell-phone and was panicking, because he works at the sub base. When I finally did reach him to warn him to stay home, it was a moment of much needed comic relief. He was complaining about the unusually long line of traffic to get onto the base, and hadn't a clear idea of what had happened. He had some vague sense that there had been a plane crash in New York. It took several minutes to convince him that he needed to turn around and go home--he thought he would still go to the office as usual! Only the wait convinced him to leave, so he went home and called me an hour later amazed that he'd been so clueless.

We were all personally lucky, as far as we know. I only knew (slightly) two people who died at the WTC: a former lacrosse star from my college days who had been a hero in the first WTC bombing and the husband of an old friend from childhood, who was in the first wave of firefighters to enter the WTC and not emerge. Both men left behind young children and beloved wives.

[Link: firstmatter.com...]
[Link: www.september11victims.com...]
[Link: www.september11victims.com...]

I'm amazed and grateful that I didn't lose more people to whom I've been close: I went to an Ivy MBA program that has trained thousands of workers in lower Manhattan.

I spent three days glued to the TV and internet simultaneously until my (wise) friend cut me off from both. I got a flight out on the 14th and went home to heal and reflect in time for the Jewish High Holidays.

Now they are upon us again, bracketing the anniversary of 9/11 and I am overwhelmed again with sadness. Yesterday, a good friend's husband held a dying man in his arms in the Gulf after their helicopter crashed:

[Link: www.nbcsandiego.com...]

I hope we can do what we need to do soon, so we can get the troops home. I no longer have any question about the morality of this war. 9/11 made the rules very clear: it's either us or them. If we let them win, they will kill us.

Charles,

You've quoted many a prayer for God to strike the US down, made by imams sick with hatred, as an example of what our "friends" in the Middle East actually wish for us.
Well, here is my prayer returned to them. It's a poem quoted by Robert Pensky in Slate, in a wonderful article about poetry and September 11. (Sorry, I don't know how to post links.)
Looking at the terrible photographs of those poor suffering people on that dreadful day, I can only hope and believe that Bidart's curse (and mine) will be fulfilled before long.

Curse
by Frank Bidart

May breath for a dead moment cease as jerking your
head upward you hear as if in slow motion floor
collapse evenly upon floor as one hundred and ten
floors descend upon you.
May what you have made descend upon you.
May the listening ears of your victims their eyes their
breath
enter you, and eat like acid
the bubble of rectitude that allowed you breath.
May their breath now, in eternity, be your breath.
*
Now, as you wished, you cannot for us
not be. May this be your single profit.
Of your rectitude at last disenthralled, you
seek the dead. Each time you enter them
they spit you out. The dead find you are not food.
Out of the great secret of morals, the imagination to enter
the skin of another, what I have made is a curse.

NC: Thank you for that picture. I have a bad fear of heights (I guess fear of falling is more accurate; ironically, being in planes and skyscrapers never bothered me.) I get nervous and shaky climbing high ladders - clinging to a window on the 100th floor of a skyscraper is a nightmarish thought. Yet I think I would have jumped rather than perish in the smoke and flames. It would have taken me a while to get up the nerve to do it, though.

The falling is actually pretty cool. It's the landing that's painful.

Donna V.,

I too am terrified of heights (I'm also terrified of flying). When I lived in New York, our offices were on the 39th floor. The guys at the concierge knew how much I hated the elevators, and every day they would talk to me through the intercom system while I was going up to my office (that's love for you :-) As long as I stayed away from the windows, I was o.k. The view was 360 degrees of the city, and breathtaking, but I couldn't look down.

I think that I would have remained in the building. I can't imagine what it must have taken for those poor souls to leap from the 100+ floors.

Patrick (#12) Wow. That is powerful. If you care to post the link, all you have to do is highlight the URL(web address) in your browser window, copy it either by going to "edit" in the menu or by right-clicking, and then pasting the URL in your post. Charles' software magically makes it just a blue http. Make sure you copy the whole address, including the http:

Mommydoc: My condolences to you regarding the loss of your acquaintances on 9/11. I am also sad about the accident in the Gulf, the death of a man who was serving his country, and the pain your friend's husband must feel.

Here's some good news: little Olivia V. was born at 9 this morning, weighs 6 lbs. 8 oz. and is beautiful!! Mom, Dad, and baby are well and were very pleased to get the Mazel Tovs!
:-))

Welcome, little Olivia! We expect Aunt Donna to show us a picture soon!

Mazel Tov again. I think a Rosh Hashona baby is a very good omen.

zulubaby #10:

The photos are powerful statements indeed.

I watched the whole thing live and in colour. I taped it. I surfed the internet with vigor. I was angry but could not cry. Until I saw this. [Link: www.kiddonet.com...]

Dear fellow lurkers and posters, do not forget to support the television archive at [Link: client.alexa.com...] . They are doing important work and their website is probably the only place you will ever see the raw, naked truth of the matter. On a side note, CBS was the ONLY network to show the people jumping. They ran it somewhere between 1 & 2pm CDT on 911. I will try to find the exact time.

Donna V.,

That's wonderful news!

Mazeltov again to you and your whole family.

Welcome, baby Olivia V. :-)

Hopfully she'll take after her lovely aunt, Donna V. :-)

mommydoc,

Like you, I'm grateful that I only slightly knew a few folks who lost their lives on 9/11. In fact, I "knew" these victims only through the extended chain of being--a friend of an in-law's cousin kind of connection--I knew of them. I too was glued to the television for the 72 hours or so after 9/11, and the anniversary brings to the forefront of my mind an aspect of the grieving that's been there all along. A small, wishfully thinking part of my brain still clings to a strange sense of un-belief about the attack; I've caught myself cycling through what was one of my initial reactions to those events: this cannot be true; I must be mistaken. I was looking at some of the newspapers I kept from a year ago, and the Wall Street Journal headline "Terrorists Destroy World Trade Center" still hits me like a slap in the face, or a kick in the stomach. Terrorists ... destroyed ... what?

Donna V.,

Heartiest congratulations!

Just Lurking,

This picture made my cry too.

[Link: www.kiddonet.com...]

When I spoke to my 7-year old nephew on 9/11, he told me, "There's war in New York. The towers are broken, they're gone".

I was sobbing, but telling him that we will never let anything happen to him, that he is safe, that he's protected. It broke my heart though. After 9/11, my brother didn't turn the news on until the kids were asleep. It killed me to hear the panic in my nephew's voice.

It kills me to think how many kids there are that are left without their moms or dads. I think about that very often. Those poor children.

Before moving to the Midwest, I lived in Tribeca on North Moore St. and I walked to work on Murray St, just two blocks north of the Trade Center. The towers loomed over my apartment and were part of my everyday life. I dined there, shopped there and hung out there. The towers were destroyed and 3000 innocent workers murdered by nazi-like bigots whose co-religionists celebrated the event. We must never forget what happened and who did it.

Charles - Thank you for posting these photos.

My blog is about standardized testing, and I have tried to keep the focus on that, and on educational reform. But I think this week I am going to have to link to sites that are giving us the truth, who are trying to make sure we remember what happened that day.

And I am starting with your site.

It appears that we are not as desensitized to violence and murder as we may have once thought. I think that is a good thing... it means we are still human.
This horrific scene will forever live in my mind. I am not done crying yet.
I thought I was desensitized until these events unfolded around us... and then I watched Daniel Pearl get beheaded and all I could do was cry - for his new child and also for what this world has become. It saddens me so much.

Horrendous and heartbreaking. It chills me to the bone.

Rudy Giuliani was there and witnessed ALL of this firsthand. The Saudi "prince" Alwaleed, having bought his way into a photo op with a check, opened his ugly mouth and put his sandal squarely into it by suggesting WE need to work on OUR policies regarding the Palestinians, and Rudy came through again, denouncing the "prince"'s sentiments and declining his filthy money. I liked Giuliani before, but I loved him after that.

In one brief moment, the Sauds proved (very publicly) that they are morally bereft, and guaranteed that they would forevermore be remembered as complicit with the atrocities of September 11.

A fine and powerful curse, Patrick #12. My favorite verse was posted by Andrew Sullivan, a piece from a Herman Melville poem on the death of Abraham Lincoln:

"There is a sobbing of the strong
and a pall across the land.
But the people in their sobbing
bare the iron hand.
Beware the people sobbing
when they bare the iron hand."

May that hand touch every Islamofascist who planned, supported, executed or cheered the WTC attack.

Here's a good US News & World Report article on how one year later, many Americans are not angry, but instead complacent.

[Link: www.usnews.com...]

Zulubaby and Gidget,

I'm getting quite concerned for both of you. Crying is good and healthy, but please try to treat yourselves to things that bring you pleasure. You can't solve the most difficult of the world's problems, not even on Charles's blog, so be good to yourselves and give yourselves some time off from worrying about the world; I'm really serious, and I'm really concerned for both of you. I don't want to offend Gidget, whom I don't know too well, but Zulubaby, here's a virtual hug for you (vertual hug).

And Mommydoc, if you are reading this, good luck with your friend.

Just Lurking --

Thanks. That site is invaluable!

On this page, I can feel and sense a deep sorrow for the people who perished in this horrible crime. But do not be fooled by thinking that they were the victims and we were lucky to escape death. Just to keep this in perspective, 30,000 people are dying everyday without food. In Hebrews 9:27, the bible says "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment". Whenever people see death as close as this event, they should ask themselves, "Am I ready to meet Jesus, if I die today ?".

Daniel, thank you for your concern, but please don't try to convert people here.

Nathan,

Thank you for your concern :-)

I'm o.k. I have my ups and downs, as I'm sure we all do.

My mom has been telling me the same thing for years, that I can't save the world and that I can't worry about everything. I do tend to over-empathize, I'm aware of it.

Thank you for being so nice about it. I'll get my Tough Chick armour back on one of these days ;-)