Some people say
It’s what we deserve
For sins against g-d
For crimes in the world
I wouldn’t know
I’m just holding the fort
Since that day
They wounded New York

Some people say
They hate us of old
Our women unveiled
Our slaves and our gold
I wouldn’t know
I’m just holding the fort
But answer me this
I won’t take you to court
Did you go crazy
Or did you report
On that day
On that day
They wounded New York

AP Photo/Richard Drew

Au trecut 8 ani. N-aş fi băgat în seamă o zi ca asta dacă nu mi-ar fi atras atenţia Cristi Lupşa asupra unui text legendar apărut în Esquire acum 6 ani sub semnătura lui Tom Junod. Un text care încearcă să dezlege misterul acestei imagini iconice a omului care cade, perfect simetric, perfect vertical, lăsând turnul de nord în stânga, lăsând turnul de sud în dreapta şi lăsând în urmă o lume care, cu o un clişeu repetat ad nauseam în acele zile, “nu va mai fi niciodată la fel”.

They began jumping not long after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died. They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building’s fatal wound. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors — the top.

For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced. Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands.

They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds. They were all, obviously, not just killed when they landed but destroyed, in body though not, one prays, in soul.

Pentru mine, 11 septembrie a rămas o zi în care am văzut lumea schimbându-se definitiv sub ochii mei. A doua zi, căutam pe net imagini ca cea de mai sus şi tot nu-mi venea să cred că scenele de groază avuseseră cu adevărat loc. În anii care au urmat am trecut prin mai multe instructaje anti-tero, am făcut parte din echipa de urgenţă care a închis British Council în ziua în care coaliţia condusă de SUA a atacat Irakul şi le-am explicat în mai multe rânduri prietenilor care veneau să bem o cafea la BritCafé de ce e necesar să fie controlaţi ca la aeroport. Înrolat în armata paranoicilor pentru care nicio valiză nu mai e o simplă valiză în absenţa proprietarului, călătoriile cu avionul nu au mai fost la fel ca înainte, iar America a devenit un vis periculos.

Pentru voi ce a însemnat 9/11?