United We Stand-Divided We Fall

Or do we? "The Falling Man" appears to divide us more than it allows us to come together as a nation.

Our class discussion (in addition to the reading) we had yesterday was incredibly intense. As much as I have thought about September 11, I have not THOUGHT about it. At the time it happened, I was in 8th grade. We didn't know that anything had happened until there was an uneasy announcement over the intercom right before we were let out for the afternoon, around 2pm. I had no idea what they were talking about. I had never heard of the World Trade Center. It meant nothing to me. I met my mom in the parking lot outside and got in the car and she asked me if I had heard what happened. I said yes. We drove home in silence. It wasn't until I had gotten home and turned on the TV, that I saw what my principal had mumbled about. On every channel, there were news broadcasts and they all showed the two towers up in flames. They played and re-played the planes flying into the towers, deliberately. I watched the news for hours, unable to process what had happened.

Admittedly, until later in high school I never really tried to analyze what had happened. Eventually there was talk of government conspiracy...talk about how our government had seen signs but hadn't prepared themselves. It was suddenly their fault. I still don't truly understand everything about that day, but I don't think anyone does. I have never had much of an emotional attachment to it, as I didn't know anyone that died that day. I take my moment of silence every year our of respect, but it never really hit me until our discussion yesterday, how big of an impact it truly had, albeit any time is better than never.

Prior to our having to read the controversial article, I had never seen a picture of "The Falling Man". I never thought about the fact that people had to jump out of the building in order to avoid the smoke. It never occurred to me that people were deliberately committing suicide. I never knew that reporters had taken photos of people committing such a "sinful act"...

It truly angers me...how divided our country feels towards the individuals who decided to take their own lives. It seems petty to me. We should remember and honor all the people who died, not judge. We should be more angry at the terrorists than the people who committed suicide, somehow tainting our American Honor. I have never understood the stigma around suicide. I have never seen how it is a less honorable way to die. However, given that the stigma does exist within our society, I can understand how people view this image as "going against" the American Image of Hope and Strength. Instead of facing the predicament head on, they "took the easy was out" and jumped (I guess). Hence, why images of firefighters swarmed newspapers instead.

As much as I can appreciate the way that our country celebrates those who risked their lives to save the people inside, it kills me that there is so much controversy over those who died. It is frustrating to know that the people who decided to stay in the building and suffocate and burn to death, were somehow more honorable than those who decided to jump. Is succumbing to death through choking on smoke and being engulfed in flames, somehow more admirable than jumping out of a window? I don't think there is a necessity to justify which form of death is "more ideal" or "less honorable". That in itself results in a huge debate, which we began to touch on in class.

One person in class mentioned that it could have been their way of claiming freedom for themselves, one last time. It was their way of taking charge of the situation. If anyone was going to take their lives, it was going to be them, not a terrorist. Another mentioned that the mentality of that moment is something we will never know. None of us know what it's like to face certain death.

Is the decision to jump out of a window of the World Trade Center more honorable than someone committing pre-meditated suicide?

The one thing I can understand is what another classmate mentioned: how we feel the correct way to honor the dead should be. If I had had a relative jump out of the World Trade Center, I would not want that picture to be on the front page of a newspaper, not because of the stigma (although no one wants to deal with that on top of the death of their family member), but because placing a picture of someone dying or seeing a real corpse of someone who has died on the front page of a newspaper, is disrespectful. As our classmate mentioned, death is a very personal thing. If we are in a hospital and our relative has just died, the doctors will give the family time and space alone, with the deceased. If there are public pictures of that person's death, that person becomes a spectacle.

This is what I find dishonorable: the fact that the picture was ever put in the newspaper to begin with. The act of suicide, I don't think was dishonorable. I think that the conscious act to make this man or any person who jumped that day, a spectacle is dishonorable. Who are we to judge?

It is unfortunate that "The Falling Man" seems to somehow separate us, rather than unite us. It's all about the image. It's all about frame. I wish the only thing that upset us as a nation, was the despicable act committed by those who killed so many people. Not the way that some chose to die during that horrific moment in history.