(Image source http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/remembering_september_11th.html image description: photocollage of people killed in the 9/11/01 attacks)
Thirteen years ago yesterday I was walking around downtown Manhattan with my darling niece, looking for back to school schwag of various sorts. Then I got on a flight back to San Jose. Our flight was weather-delayed, and I was finally home around 2:00 am
A friend called at 7:30 am, and said, "You have to wake up, you have to turn on the television!" I was transfixed and speechless most of the day.
Back in the day, I was reading the blog Making Light, by Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who live and work in New York City. What they wrote that week and a year later.
David Kroll lost a childhood friend that day, John Michael Griffin, Jr, and writes of Griffin's heroism. Go read. The novelist Meg Cabot writes about her experiences on the day. Jesse Robbins reminds us that 343 members of the New York Fire Department died serving their city that day.
Jane Goodwin reflected on how her middle school adminstration made the day worse for her students. Epi Ren on being a dark-skinned foreigner in the days afterwards. Ken at PopeHat on Ten Things I want My Children to Learn from 9/11. Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station on allowing history to become history.
In the September 2003 issue of Esquire, Tom Junod published "The Falling Man," an article reflecting on the photograph of a man jumping or falling from the World Trade Center on September 11.
The image, and Junod's story, prompted Esquire magazine to do something:
came immediately to mind when photos and video of James Foley’s beheading by ISIS began circling the globe, followed two weeks later by the devastating video of Steven Sotloff’s murder. We wondered whether there was something we could do to honor their courage as journalists. And that’s when we came back to those 20 million readers.
We’ve teamed up with Creatavist and Tinypass on a fundraiser to sell a re-issue of “The Falling Man,” with a new introduction about James Foley. All revenue will go to the James Foley Scholarship Fund at Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication. Our audacious goal is to raise $200,000, enough to cover a full four-year scholarship. We may fail miserably, or we might surprise ourselves. Either way, we hope you’ll help.
To all the families who have lost loved ones, from 9/11 through today, from the consequences of that day: My condolences on your loss. For those families of service men and women who have died: thank you for your loved one's service and sacrifice. May you all find peace.
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