It was the people falling that really gut-punched me.

[Lyric]

The ones who chose to jump, rather than burn to death. It still hurts me to think of what they must have been going through in those last few moments--the terrible courage it took to make that choice. I have hoped since I saw it that they found some kind of peace inside before the end.

And the firefighters who were running up the stairs while everyone else was trying to go down. They probably knew what they were running toward, and they did it anyway. They were just fiercely, fiercely brave. Rarely do we see that kind of selfless courage. I pray we never have such a need for it again.

The people on flight 93, the ones who chose to give their lives in a final, desperate attempt to keep that plane from getting to Washington D.C. I remember hearing some of their final phone calls, as well as ones that came from people on the top floors of the Towers. Answering machine messages that tried to carry a lifetime's worth of love squeezed into a 60-second recording to the families who'd be left behind.

I remember standing in line for an hour and a half to give blood, only to be turned away because they literally couldn't *take* any more.

LyricKid was just a baby then. I remember turning off the television sometime that afternoon, taking him into my bedroom, locking the door, and just holding him, thanking whatever gods might be out there that he was safe in my arms at that moment, knowing full well that too many other mothers out there that day would never hold their children again.

These things hurt me even now, nine years later. I guess they always will.

To the people who lost someone that day: my family's thoughts and tears are with you, now and forever.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That is beautifully said, my dear Lyric...

Just perfect...

Thank you.

Recommended...

[happi1]

2. seen

For all those who fell. It is a thought...when I saw the USGS email that came through from the HT port au prince event..you know so many souls have just gone back to beginning. shock, horror, anger, blame.

I don't have the words.

[m00nbeam]

3. I still cry about it.

The video footage of the people jumping is still the most difficult thing for me to fathom. I was rocked to the core (not in the good way) that day, and I remain forever changed. I still have difficulty in getting my head around what drives people to carry out such destructive plans.

Although not all of us may have known someone who perished on that terrible day, I really believe we all lost a sense of innocence.

[truedelphi]

4. Yeah, the people jumping, yes, that tragedy and horridness and

In counterpoint, the pristine and perfectly azure skies of what should have been a glorious early autumn Tuesday.

I have never trusted a beautiful sky since.

[Lyric]

5. ...

:hug:

:cry:

[Gin]

6. I read that one of those that jumped.. landed on the Chaplain

for the firefighters and killed him....what a horrendous day that was..

[WilliamPitt]

7. The firefighters carrying the Chaplain's body away

got their picture taken. It was on the front page of the Boston Herald on the 12th.

[WinkyDink]

17. Concrete, not a person.

http://saintmychaljudge.blogspot.com/

[Robb]

14. I remember Wednesday's sky, too.

Not a single plane in it. Quiet. Peaceful, but knowing why made it uneasy.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. Me too. Not only that day, but a few days after the event, I got a call from a friend

A member of his synagogue called his wife and told her that he loved her and he was about to jump. He didn't want her to be classified as "agunah" - a Jewish term that refers to a woman with unknown marital status (not divorced, not widowed) - so that she could remarry to raise their kids.

My blood ran cold just thinking about how that conversation must have gone.

My thoughts and prayers to those who lost friends and family 9 years ago.

[badgerpup]

9. I took 'supplies' to the blood bank that day...

...talked KFC where my partner worked out of a bucket of chicken for them, brought a HUGE amount of cookies, OJ, pitchers, apple chips...

Knew my blood was unacceptable and the place would be jammed anyway.

[Gin]

10. as awful as that day was...I felt a sense of togetherness with the

USA more that I ever have in my life.....sorry to say...that has faded..we were a country that came together at least for a short time. (IMO)

[JanMichael]

11. For about 10 minutes

then someone on Fox said "this was Clinton's fault...."

9/11 made this country more divided and uglier.

[another saigon]

12. me too. Have you seen this?

Falling Man? It is haunting.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x503748

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. The American people have never really been told the volume of people who jumped

It was a lot, and started very early. I saw them streaming - yes, streaming - off the east face of WTC1 even before WTC2 was hit. They were coming off in clumps, and separating in the air as they fell. This was approximately 8:55 or so, very shortly after the first hit, from my vantage near the City Hall subway stop for the 4,5, and 6 trains. It was the most horrific thing I'd ever seen, and I'd just seen Flight 11 collide with the north face of WTC1.

[WinkyDink]

18. You saw the first collision? What made you look up?

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. The extremely loud sound going on overhead

on an otherwise quiet morning (i.e., the same thing that made the Naudet brother and those firefighters look up several blocks to the north of my location). As far south as I was, it was all in a flash, since the plane was probably going 450mph at that point, and Chambers and Broadway is only something like 400 yards north of WTC1 (and maybe closer...I'm guessing at distance).

[Hissyspit]

30. This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys41jnL2Elk

[leftstreet]

20. Good grief

What a terrible thing to witness

I was amazed, in hindsight, that the M$M basically disappeared those images from the tube. You'd think Bush/Cheney War Inc could have whipped Americans into such a fervor with those images, they'd invade anybody!

Instead Colin Pants on Fire Powell was reduced to his antics at the UN.

[Hissyspit]

27. This video is very GRAPHIC. Please do not watch it if you can not handle it:

Tourists videotape showing many victims falling and on the ground: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjN5L6dhONQ

On the ground, I had never seen it before and found this video only recently.


From that documentary by the French journalists (Naudets): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg8FQiJ-Rcw

I was in WTC lobby a month before and the acoustics are haunting to me. That day I put my hand on the side of the building and looked up and wondered what if it would be like if terrorists were able to accomplish what they tried to accomplish in 1993.

It is important to remember that most-likely many of these people were not "jumpers." They were pushed out of the building by intense heat and the inability to breathe. Their bodies impulsively went in the only direction that made "sense" to get away from the heat. This was not the case for all, obviously. If you have seen the video of the tests on the new "heat" crowd-control weapon, you understand that the reaction is essentially involuntary.

[Arugula Latte]

15. I was just thinking that this morning ... The jumpers -- that's what got me most.

In a day of unimaginable horror, the horror of standing on a window ledge hundreds of feet in the air and deciding whether to burn or jump ... It's just beyond comprehension.

[CANDO]

16. If only there were parachutes available.

Hindsight being 20/20. I think around the world many people working in these skyscrapers should stash some in their offices. Even if you've never used one before, it would save your life. Seems so simple now.

[Lyric]

22. It does indeed. God knows that untrained base-jumping is very dangerous

but it's a heck of a lot better than a guaranteed death jumping *without* a parachute. Even a small chance is better than no chance at all. :(

[Hissyspit]

25. Parachutes unreliable and dangerous. In Newsweek this week, I believe

there is an article on an orthopedic surgeon who has developed a system for "reeling" yourself down using an emergency cord system. It is in development stage, but looks promising. Sort of a controlled rappelling device that anyone could use.

ON EDIT: Here it is: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/04/my-turn-9-11-the-jumpers-and-a-rescue-reel.html

So in 2003 I contacted the engineering firm Think2Build and laid out the challenge: to build a high-rise personal-rescue device that anyone could use—without training and no matter how panicked. Parachutes, slides, and external elevators all seemed impractical or overly complicated. But the fishing idea held promise. We developed a dual-spool device with a harness that could lower people on a line. We loaded it with rocks or weighted mannequins, testing from the roof of my four-story clinic in San Francisco.
Finally, in early 2009, after six years and $1 million, we debuted the Rescue Reel for firefighters in Vallejo, Calif. The finished product is a small wonder. It is less than 20 pounds (for the 100-story model), fits in a filing cabinet, and is ready to use in three steps: fasten the clip to a secure object, slip on the harness, and slide out a window. The 1,000-foot cord is equipped with an automatic braking system, so if you can make it out the window, you descend at no quicker than about two seconds per story (which means it would have taken about four minutes to flee the upper floors of the Twin Towers). Popular Science named it a 2009 invention of the year. And even at $1,500 each, it’s cheaper and more reliable than an extra stairwell.

‘We Will Always Remember’
Young adults reflect on experiencing the events of 9/11 as children and discuss how that day was a defining moment for their generation
Now the challenge is production and distribution. We’re negotiating with a U.S. manufacturer and fielding inquiries from would-be customers, including a private resident of San Francisco’s Millennium Tower, a Ferris wheel operator, and the military, which sees the reel as a way to lower soldiers from helicopters or to give overseas ambassadors an emergency--exit plan from embassies. Rescue workers like the idea of lowering the device to stranded people and letting them drop down themselves, whether from a building or a cliff face. I can imagine applications on cruise ships and oil rigs.

But landlords of buildings above six floors—the point at which ladders often falter—should be the most interested. Someday, I believe Rescue Reels will be as commonplace as fire extinguishers, emergency exits, and sprinkler systems, all of which faced skepticism at first. Even if the nation’s building codes aren’t revised to require reels, building managers will market them (especially in earthquake-prone places like California) once they see that they work and their competitors have them. That’s why this month marks the start of a personal countdown. By next year, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I hope to gift a batch to New York City.

[Odin2005]

19. Those images of people falling to their deaths still haunts me.

[maryf]

21. Cell phones didn't work that high back then

too many phone calls were made from cell phones...very sad day regardless...

[mitchum]

23. Fire is a primal fear that trumps certain death from a great height

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. I was in a large crowd just north of the north tower when the jumpers started. Gutwrenching.

Many in the crowd made audible gasps, and I think all of us felt sick from it.

Of all the shit from that day, the memory of watching the people jump as I watched it in a crowd who were all reacting to it is the one that haunts me the most.

[treestar]

28. I've always hoped there is no decision, just instinct

To get away from the smoke.

[AnnieBW]

29. Same here.

I'm terrified of heights. We were in the WTC observation deck in 1993, and I was scared shitless even in an enclosed space. I could NOT imagine choosing between jumping or burning. I think that I'd have to take burning or dying in the collapsing building over jumping.

[AwakeAtLast]

31. I was five months pregnant with AALette

Her life was changed dramatically and she wasn't even born yet. That was all I could think about then. I couldn't even comprehend the loss of life that first day. Over the next few days and weeks it all became tragically clear.

The husband of one of the teachers in the school I was in was supposed to have a meeting in one of the towers on that day. His meeting had been postponed by one day. One day. :wow:

[UpInArms]

32. all I can do is play this song, over and over

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUVnKz_deUA

[butterfly77]

33. Thanks,I love Tracy Chapman..

I have never heard this one.Love it!