Trying to think in terms of this person having to make a rational decision, then follow through on it, is terrible beyond belief. I can't imagine the horror it brings to the families.
People not from NYC were blase about it that morning. Then came the barrage of media coverage, and the zillion replays of the towers falling. One columnist later described the obsessive coverage as a form of pornography.
I beg your pardon. People not from New York were not blase about the destruction of the Twin Towers. My co-workers and I watched the live TV coverage with almost disbelief as the events unfolded. We were all immediately incensed and angry with what we saw. It was not until after the fact that most people became aware of the victims that jumped and the terrible deaths that they encountered due to the viscous and cowardly acts of the Islamic Facists that caused this catastrophie.
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Don Bryant
"Photograph what you think, not what you see.
I find the suggestion that there is some hierarchy of legitimacy for having feelings about these events based upon the presence or absence of various conduits by which one experienced them, problematic.
Feeling the heat of the fireball is no assurance that one is better able to identify with or empathize with, the direct victims of the attack.
I have my own story about how the fourth wall of the tv screen was breeched that day...reminding me that this wasn't 'reality tv." I'm grateful that in a small way I was shaken by the shoulders and made to see that the events were not abstractions but I don't think those without a similar experience can't know what it was like...
None of us knows what it was like to be on one of the planes...or a member of the FDNY...or the falling man.
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,,i think you are missing the point, as well as the post below yours. Folks who were there don't go bragging, I certanly don't. each person in either city has their own story. No one is saying "only NYKers and DCers get bragging rights".
Everyone across the world had tears that day, this extreme brutal act.
What I experienced that day will not be spoken here and all I will say is that I was there. I felt, I saw, I feared for my life and the people I knew, I breathed in the death of 2800 people.
Yes, this image may be important to history. Those that experienced these events directly have quite a different take than someone watching the TV.
The same truths hold true for those who directly experienced the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, The atom bombs in Japan, etc..
dw
Quote:
Originally Posted by donbga
I beg your pardon. People not from New York were not blase about the destruction of the Twin Towers. My co-workers and I watched the live TV coverage with almost disbelief as the events unfolded. We were all immediately incensed and angry with what we saw. It was not until after the fact that most people became aware of the victims that jumped and the terrible deaths that they encountered due to the viscous and cowardly acts of the Islamic Facists that caused this catastrophie.
This is the first time I have seen this picture. For me it sums up the useless waste that resulted from the unforgivable act that precipitated it. Having read some of the articles linked to the earlier thread I fail to understand how anyone can censure the victims that may have chosen to escape the choking inferno, and a certain terrible death, that they faced by jumping from the building. It is important that such pictures are taken, and not hidden; for we should not be permitted to forget the evil that occasioned this further example of man’s inhumanity to man.
Dave,
I think the primary reason for the censure was to protect the families of the victims. Imagine how seeing that picture in the paper or on TV would make you feel if that was a picture of your wife, your child, or your father.
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jstraw, I agree that everyone was affected in their own way that day, and that we all empathize with the families of those lost. It's not the legitimacy of feelings that has a hierarchy. It is the life-altering experiences of that day that have a hierarchy. To imply everyone experienced even remotely the same thing is like saying people IN a car accident experience the same thing as those who WITNESS a car accident. I would equate my own experience to that of a pedestrian that dove out of the way of a fatal accident and then tried to assist the injured and recover the dead.
To imply you and I experienced that day in even a remotely similar way is simply BS. You didn't watch people brace themselves in a window with your own eyes, hear the thump when the bodies hit, run for your life when 2 WTC came down, experience complete darkness for 20 minutes until the cloud cleared while you were choking on dust and feeling the rumble as the other tower collapsed, not knowing if it was coming your way, see the huge see of abandoned shoes left by people who kicked them off and ran for their lives, spend the afternoon clawing at debris with your hands or a bucket, guided only by the chirping sound of the firemen's personal emergency beacons, finding only small parts of bodies. Similarly, I did not experience the loss of a family member, and cannot begin to imagine the trauma of those who did. I certainly attended enough funerals of friends and acquaintances.
I am far from the top of it, but let's face facts, there IS a hierarchy of what people took away from that day. I have the chest X-rays and respiratory function test scores to quantify some of what I took away. I was lucky. Others only ended up with a death certificate.
In the same way I can imagine what the folks in the planes and the towers felt, you can imagine what I experienced. But you can't KNOW what I experienced because you did not experience it. You don't wake up hearing the rumble of a falling building in a dream. You don't cough from respiratory ilnesses. You don't occasionally catch a whiff of the Trade Center fire when someone is torch-cutting steel and accidently ignites a piece of plastic. You didn't lose your North Star for getting home from the bar (keep the WTC on my right and I'd hit the PATH train). You probably don't look at every airliner flying over your city thinking it's just a little TOO fricking close, and why dont they change the airport approach patterns.
I'm not sure why you find it problematic to recognize those differences.
Dave,
I think the primary reason for the censure was to protect the families of the victims.
Pardon me, but I think you are confusing the word "censure" with "censor." Certainly "censuring" a person (or a photograph) does not protect the families of the victims.
Having read some of the articles linked to the earlier thread I fail to understand how anyone can censure the victims that may have chosen to escape the choking inferno, and a certain terrible death, that they faced by jumping from the building. It is important that such pictures are taken, and not hidden; for we should not be permitted to forget the evil that occasioned this further example of man’s inhumanity to man.
After reading the article posted by Jim Chinn I understood that the 'censure' was coming mostly from the families (and those concerned for the families) - some of whom saw the way the people chose to die as suicide - many people have a powerful belief that suicide is a sin, and that the suicide of a loved one is a kind of betrayal (however forced upon the person it might be).
Also, the article made clear how terribly painful the photograph, in particular the search for the identity of the man in the photograph, was to many families.
It also pointed out that the photograph was one of a sequence, and the whole sequence gave a very different picture from the supposed elegance (and iconic nature) of that one frame.
I do sometimes wonder if there are other ways that convey experience more accurately and more powerfully than such a single image in time. I found the article itself far more rounded, and more powerful - sometimes photographers forget the power of words over images to convey harsh and complex truths. I also think documentary moving film can, at times, do far more for truth and understanding than a single image.
edit: here's a quote from John Steinbeck I've grown rather attached to recently..
"I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything." ~John Steinbeck
I wouldn't say I hate cameras, but I see his point.
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