There are few more indelible - "indelible" as in "horrifying" - images as the one taken of a falling man the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 at the WTC. His head pointed towards the ground, legs slightly bent, he is frozen forever in time, like a Vesuvius victim preserved in ash.
Some people (per the entry on the Falling Man in Wikipedia) have tried to permanently strike the Richard Drew picture from the Nine Eleven photographic record, and if true, their efforts have been ludicrously in vain. If seen once, it's never forgotten.
Simply the words, "falling man," summon it to the mind's eye, and even Don DeLillo wrote a book so entitled. "Falling man" is part of the language, and the picture is part of our lives. I say all this because the Discovery Times Channel (the Gray Lady sold her stake in the network last year) has announced that it will air a Brit documentary based entirely on the Drew photograph on September 10 at 9. (Drew, by the way, is the veteran AP photog who was on hand in the immediate aftermath of the Bobby Kennedy assassination.)
Of course, there's no reason to wait till then to watch this program; the doc's been posted on Youtube for a while, and here it is, right now.... By the way, I'd recommend this version in lieu of the TDC one, which is expected to be cut to an hour.
Comments (1)
Gwendolyn's comments were so poignant and meaningful. I'm sure her brother, however he passed, knew he was going to be safe with the Lord. This was very moving to me, I'm glad for the opportunity to hear this story.