The Falling Man
The 19 terrorists who boarded four commercial jets committed one of the worst violent acts in the world’s history. What is still shouldered globally, the fight for safety will be an everlasting war zone. The tragedy that killed over 3,000 lives in 2001, continues to tremble America’s soil. These attacks brought the country together and displayed to the world that we will not rest for freedom. We can quantify the events and see how they impacted the world economically, or try to justify these acts and analyze the reasons, but the world can never settle with the idea of terrorism.
The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Richard Drew, an Associated Press photographer. During the September 11 attacks in New York City, the photograph keeps the moment of 9:41 a.m. at a standstill. The identify of the man remains uncertain, as he was one of the victims trapped on the upper floors of the skyscraper. But one fact remains clear, his identity is just as important as those who were seeing it happen.
What had looked like confetti or falling debris, was the sad realization that these items floating from the top of the World Trade Center were in fact people.
At least 200 people are believed to have jumped to their deaths, which officials are labeling as homicides. Reports claim that heat was so intense in the upper levels that jumping was the only way to air. The disturbing image is one of the most powerful images in the twenty-first century.
Due to the angle of which Flight 11 impacted, anyone above the 91st floor of the North Tower was unable to escape the building, trapping 1,344 people. All of these victims died due to smoke inhalation, jumping or falling from the building, or the collapse of the building at 10:28 am.
Media has disregarded anyone’s ideas that these victims were submitted to their death as suicides. The honorable actions by the fallen men and women had perished in the act of selflessness.
In my depiction of The Falling Man I can only hope to show how death under terrorism does not sway American morals. The man in the photo plunges head first to his death and while this may have been a choice, it was one of honor. Over the photo, we find the colors of the American flag.
Americans owe their lives to their patriotism and fear. We can only be angered by these events for the lives that they have cost our country, but we cannot hold on to the bitterness of the past.
The innocent people who were murdered in the desperateness of evil have empowered the world to seek goodness. As we weep for those lives and the families they leave behind, we remember the values that our country were found upon. We are palpable and these events were real. However aggressive the moves against terrorism may be, the lives lost on this day were the ultimate defense.
