Another Year Gone

So here we are again. Another year, another September 11th, "the hunt" continues. Listen, after the events of the past two weeks, it's painfully obvious that if this administration cannot help thousands of people trapped for days in one building in a major American city, there is no reason to expect it to bring to justice the two main individuals responsible for the worst-ever attack on American soil.

Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri have been free since 9/11 longer than the United States fought in World War II. Perhaps at some point in the next few years, the FBI will get around to updating its "most wanted" profiles of the two to include a mention of 9/11 and to note that they are no longer in Afghanistan. As you can see here, and here, that hasn't happened yet. And perhaps one day we'll actually start applying "with us or against us" and demand that Pakistan either gets Bin Laden or allows us to do so, as the head of the CIA implies here.

In the meantime, we must not forget what happened four years ago, and we should never stop demanding accountability. Here's one eyewitness account of that day:

But above and beyond everything, the one thing I will never forget to my dying day, is the view of the people on the roof and higher floors of the World Trade Center lined up in the windows and on railings. You cannot see their expressions, but it is amazing what a 40 power telescope reveals. They often huddled, probably talked about their chances, and sometimes went back into the building, or maybe, just laid on the floor. But then, some went to the edge, and jumped.

Some jumped in pairs, holding hands. I doubt if they were married or lovers. I think it was just two people, alone, desperate, black, white, oriental, who cares - the telescope didn't allow me to distinguish age and race. They would just pair up and jump.

I have thought all day about this. If I were on the roof, and I saw flames on all sides of the building, I would almost certainly jump rather than fry. And if I saw another trembling human alongside of me, I would be much happier holding their hand, and jumping as a pair. Somehow to jump as half of a pair, even if the other half is an ad hoc recent acquaintance, seems to me an infinitely more human way to pass on to the next step, than to take the next step alone.

Take a minute to look at the people he wrote about, and try to imagine your children, your parents, or yourself in their place just before they jumped. A few of the photos are here---they are disturbing, but important to think about. From that day on, our national obsession should have been bringing to justice those responsible, and addressing the root causes so something like it never happens again.

How are we doing?



Update 9/11 8:00pm: Apparently because of the large number of visitors, the above website has been temporarily overwhelmed. Another site with some of those same photos is here.