9-11 Attacks - the 9th Anniversary

The collapse

Today, I watched several new documentaries regarding the September 11th tragedy. Watching these films brings it all back with a vengence - it is not 2001, it is now. It brings back all of the senseless tragedy and suffering of it all.

Man falling to his death

Some of the survivors of the victims have gotten on with their lives after 9 years. Some have not and some will never recover from their loss. Some of the partners and spouses and parents of the victims have committed suicide. Some children, whose parents died that day, will never know their fathers or their mothers, because they were too young (age 2 or 3) to know who their fathers or mothers were. 

It is unknown exactly how many people died in the attacks that day. According to the New York State Health Department, 836 responders, including firefighters and police personnel, have died as of June 2009. Among the 2,752 victims who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center were 343 firefighters and 60 police officers from New York City and the Port Authority. 184 people were killed in the attacks on the Pentagon. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. 

The bravery of many of those killed is undisputed, including the bravery of the airplane victims, who on one plane, stormed the cockpit in an attempt to overpower the terrorists. 

In this documentary I watched today, one man in the World Trade Center was trapped in an elevator and was choking to death from the smoke. He realized he had to get out of the elevator or he would smother to death. He managed to pry open the elevator doors and squeezed through an 18 inch opening into the lobby, whereupon he fell across a headless corpse with only a spinal column sticking out. He survived and dragged an injured woman with him down 80 floors to safety. 

God help us and save us from terrorism.  

God have mercy on all of the innocent men and women who died that day.   God have mercy on the man depicted above, you threw himself out of a window to certain death.  Jesus, Mary and Joseph have mercy on him and all like him, who died on that day.