Sat Sept 12

Last night, we watched a pretty powerful documentary about 9/11 on the History Channel. I think I've seen every video & photo slideshow about Sept 11th ever made, but this one was pretty different. It was a collection of videos that amateur photographers took in Manhattan that morning. There was a clock spinning throughout the movie so you could keep up with what order things happened in. Very moving.

Two things that really struck me ---
1. In one scene just a couple of minutes before the towers collapsed, you see a person leaning out a window high in the building (above the level where the fires were burning an inferno out the windows). He/she is waving a white flag frantically trying to get someone's attention for help. I know that there aren't random flags in most office buildings, so you know that they took off their shirt or grabbed a tablecloth off the office kitchen table or maybe it was someone's white jacket. Who knows? I couldn't help but watch that person waving that white flag & wonder what was going on in their mind in those moments. I ached, knowing that I was sitting in my comfy living room literally watching the last minutes of this person's life as they waved that flag, begging for help from ANYONE who could possibly get to them & get them out of the building. Moments afterward, the building collapsed & undoubtedly, that flag waving person died.

2. In many scenes, you see firetrucks & police cars & all the authorities on the ground directing people away from the area. But what hit me like a ton of bricks was watching the firemen going into the building. I'm certain that most of those men didn't come out. Listening to a conversation of one fireman & his captain on the ground was hard too. And the 911 calls where the operators repeatedly told the people to "sit tight....we're coming...there are firefighters in the building....". I know that the 911 operators had to wonder if they'd be able to save them, if they were sharing those people's last moments with them on the phone.

Watching that documentary brought tears to my eyes, and I hope that never changes. I don't think any of us will ever forget the horror of that day, watching people jump from the windows to escape the terror inside the building....planes crashing into buildings before our eyes....knowing the level of sadness & grief going on across the country. :::sigh:::

The truth is, I don't do war movies or even the medieval time movies where there are battle scenes. I just can't 'take it'. I don't like violence, but more than that, I can't stomach seeing the last moments of someone's life in media. The very moment where that person steps from their earthly life into the arms of God is such a personal, sacred moment.

Today I'm praying for the families of all those men & women whose last moments were caught on tape, shown over & over & over for their families to see again & again. God bless those families who have to relive that day over & over, year after year. May we never take our loved ones for granted.