The Falling Man

[babylonsister]

Beautifully written, intolerably sad.

The Falling Man
Images at link
An unforgettable story.
By Tom Junod
Sep 9, 2016


Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.

In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity's divine suction or by what awaits him. His arms are by his side, only slightly outriggered. His left leg is bent at the knee, almost casually. His white shirt, or jacket, or frock, is billowing free of his black pants. His black high-tops are still on his feet. In all the other pictures, the people who did what he did—who jumped—appear to be struggling against horrific discrepancies of scale. They are made puny by the backdrop of the towers, which loom like colossi, and then by the event itself. Some of them are shirtless; their shoes fly off as they flail and fall; they look confused, as though trying to swim down the side of a mountain. The man in the picture, by contrast, is perfectly vertical, and so is in accord with the lines of the buildings behind him. He splits them, bisects them: Everything to the left of him in the picture is the North Tower; everything to the right, the South. Though oblivious to the geometric balance he has achieved, he is the essential element in the creation of a new flag, a banner composed entirely of steel bars shining in the sun. Some people who look at the picture see stoicism, willpower, a portrait of resignation; others see something else—something discordant and therefore terrible: freedom. There is something almost rebellious in the man's posture, as though once faced with the inevitability of death, he decided to get on with it; as though he were a missile, a spear, bent on attaining his own end. He is, fifteen seconds past 9:41 a.m. EST, the moment the picture is taken, in the clutches of pure physics, accelerating at a rate of thirty-two feet per second squared. He will soon be traveling at upwards of 150 miles per hour, and he is upside down. In the picture, he is frozen; in his life outside the frame, he drops and keeps dropping until he disappears.

more...


https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a48031/the-falling-man-tom-junod/

[hlthe2b]

1. I've read and seen the documentary several times over the years. It is just devastating

but, also a bit of a tribute to the truth of that day. How anyone can feel shame or shame others--when these poor people were left with absolutely NO choices has always made me wonder about our society.

[DemocracyMouse]

11. I lost a job and a family due to 9/11

[yardwork]

12. I'm so sorry.

[hlthe2b]

19. So very sorry to hear that...

[Pachamama]

2. A good friend of mine who lives in CA now, was at work there that morning at WTC...

In addition to dealing with the mourning of the loss of friends, the trauma of the event, and survivors guilt, he still deals with the nightmares as he had to see and hear the bodies slamming to the ground from above.

He can't talk about it. He starts shaking and its too much for him. We only know this happened because he was talking about it in the first days when he was in shock. His wife tells me how he often wakes up in a sweat in middle of the night.

Those images will never leave him and he too is a victim of this tragedy. I can't even imagine what horror he saw that morning 17 years ago.

[ailsagirl]

4. Just devastating

Seventeen years later-- I can't even comprehend it

[TommyCelt]

3. I was working at the Federal Reserve...

....2 blocks away from the Trade Center. We walked down Maiden Lane to WTC after the 1st plane hit, the unspeakable curiosity of what was going on still keeping terror at bay.

We left when we started hearing the bodies hit the street, back to into the Fed for protection.

I will never come to terms with that horrid unthinkably rhythmic impact. It will haunt me forever.

[ailsagirl]

5. How horrifying

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. I lived in Fort Lee, NJ at the time.

For some reason, I can write about 09/11/01, but I still have trouble talking about it out loud. And I wasn't even in the city, just across the river where I could see the smoke billowing up Manhattan.

We lost several members of our UU congregation (Cantor Fitzgerald) that day. I had a number of friends who worked in lower Manhattan and didn't hear from them for 2 - 3 days. My dad worked at the Pentagon one week out of each month in the section where the plane hit, and I couldn't for the life of me remember which week it was. I couldn't get my parents on the phone for the next twelve hours.

I watched the live footage of the second plane hitting the WTC while on the phone with my husband. He was working at the Bergen Record which had received a report of a plane hitting the WTC. He called to ask me to turn on the tv to find out more details since they didn't have one where he was. At the time, we all assumed it was a Cessna off course or something. I just remember screaming into the phone, "There's another plane, OMG! that's an airliner, that's a jet. That's no cessna, it's an airliner! Another plane just hit!" My husband tried telling me to calm down that it I was probably seeing a replay of the earlier accident. There was a commotion behind him and I heard, "honey, stay put, I've got to go. I'll call you as soon as I can."

And then I made a dumbass decision to go grocery shopping. I had just returned from my in-law's after 10 days and had no food in the apartment with a five year old and an 11 month old boy. The grocery store was right on the river. We were getting out of the car when the towers collapsed and the smoke plumes began. By the time I returned home, the police had closed the bridge and cordoned off Fort Lee. I had to drive around the town and come in from the north where an Englewood cop took pity on a young mom with two kids and let me in against his orders.

I distinctly remember the live media reports of jumpers that day. The following day I had an eye appointment, and the doctor kept leaving and coming back throughout the exam. At one point, he apologized and explained he was treating the eyes of first responders - they had to get them flushed and cleaned frequently because of the dust and ash. I told him I already knew because I could actually hear everything being said in the next room. A lot of it was about the jumpers. A lot. That Saturday and Sunday we had several services at the UU church where the jumpers were discussed. I've always found it odd that aspect of the story went largely untold when everyone who was there knew the jumping numbers were significant.

I'll be perfectly blunt. Religious beliefs about suicide piss me off. The only thought I ever had about the jumpers was one of sheer horror and "there but for the vagaries of the universe..." How do you decide one manner of death is preferable to another? I cannot even imagine being in that position. How would you hold someone responsible for a "sin" in such ghastly circumstances? That to me is evil.

Hard article to read, but a story that deserves to be told.

I've thought about it since that day. I don't think it would matter much to me if I lost a close family member to the impact of a jet, an inferno, the crush of a collapsing building, a jump from that building, or the noxious air particulates. They would be victims of mass murderers regardless of the cause of death and still lost to me forever.

[1cheapbeemr]

7. To me, he looks like a busboy

Maybe a black guy, he's got the white jacket and black trousers, boots for long days on his feet. The whole crew at the restaurant at the top was lost.

I worked for years in restaurants, paying for college, and then some. Still can't go out to eat without noticing the crew. Heartbreaking pic.

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Someone I knew was starting his first day in that restaurant, that day. He showed up early, and...

well, all were lost in what must have been hell at the top of the building.

Awful day. Awful weeks of memorial services. (Another acquaintance was aboard the United flight)

[lillypaddle]

9. Horrifying and moving

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

10. I'll never forget what my boss said to me that day.

She said it was so early that a lot of people weren’t at work yet, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

I said to her, “people like me were there, preparing and prepping documents so that when people like you strolled in, things would be ready for you.”

[Snake Plissken]

13. I remember watching a documentary where the documentarian mistakenly identified the Falling Man

When he notified the family his family disowned him because it was against their religious beliefs for him to kill himself, and they were very relieved to find out is wasn't their family member but someone else.

It's amazing how messed up some people's belief system is, having a God that allows a plane to crash into a building it perfectly acceptable, and having a loved one burning alive in that perfectly acceptable, but having him jump out of that burning building to avoid being burned alive in unforgivable.

[SeattleVet]

14. He was most likely Jonathan Eric Briley, from my home town (Mt.Vernon, NY).

His family recognized the orange t-shirt he had under his white jacket when it blew open on his way down.

He was the brother of Alex Briley, one of the original members of The Village People.

[Perseus]

15. Wow...my heart is crying

Well written, but the pain started to come back...Things like this should never happen, all the people responsible should be found.

[yuiyoshida]

16. The FALLING MAN, Still unknown to this day..

[The_jackalope]

17. It's the small, personal elements that freeze me inside.

The death of the buildings themselves were so big they became symbols - iconic, impersonal, abstract. For me that sense of separation makes it possible to look at the photographs of smoke, flame, ash and collapse without having a part of me die as well.

The photos of the individual jumpers, the Tumbling Woman sculpture - these exist on a whole different level. Looking at them I can feel myself inside them, with all the confusing, conflicting, irrevocable feelings and sensations the person experienced in those agonizingly long, yet infinitesimally short moments suspended between light and darkness.

In not turning away from them, in allowing myself to experience my feelings, I try to honour their incredible humanity. There but for grace am I, frozen in time and space.

[mountain grammy]

18. This really got to me