September 11: Take a Moment
Web offers a wealth of images, stories looking back on a year changed by a single day.Steve Bass, special to PCWorld.com
The images really say it. They angered and saddened me; some mesmerized me, and most forced me to remember the enormity of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Take a few minutes to view the handful of sites I found with the most compelling images and the most gripping stories.
Worth a Thousand Words
The POW Forum's Politics and Protest site goes on a little too long and the music is annoyingly repetitious, but the images are stunning.
Joseph Rodriguez's black-and-white images at Zone Zero are some of the best I've seen. They capture the raw emotion of people on 9/11, and then a week later on 9/17--the anger, confusion, and compassion.
September11news has a tremendous collection of pictures from major newspapers and magazines. Unfortunately, it also refers to "mysteries about The Number Eleven," nonsense you can easily avoid. Focus on the images instead.
Prose and Pictures
USA Today's A Morning to Remember does an immense job of explaining the chain of events. A click on any link in the "Interactive Documentary" section will get you started; you can easily jump to other sections. The most difficult for me to read? "Desperation forced a horrific decision: burn or jump."
The Washington Post has 20 stirring photos of the New York attack, with another area for the often neglected Pentagon disaster.
Time magazine has a terrific collection of images that you'll want to see. Regrettably, the section on 9/11 is disjointed--one link often leads back to the page you just visited. Start at the Photo Essays Page and make sure you visit "Shattered" and "Groundzero." Then visit 11 Lives. The most stirring images for me are "Remains of a Day" and "Shadow to Light."
A Different Angle
The Space Imaging site has a year's worth of images of both the Twin Towers and the Pentagon that were taken from the IKONOS satellite. Click the image to enlarge and navigate.
You'll find equally moving photos on the PixelPress site, including submissions from everyday documentarians. Some verge on professional, others express the photographer's intense feelings, and most are touching.
RealNetworks presents a collection of seven videos that capture the 9/11 experiences of everyday people. "Union Square," the longest of the videos, impressed me as it shows New Yorkers struggling to come to terms with the disaster. Both "The Lobby" and "The Subway" are short takes of individuals caught in the midst of the nightmare. These are powerful videos with views I haven't seen elsewhere. Fair warning: Some of the language is raw and emotionally charged.
While there are no pictures, the Atlantic Monthly's site has excerpts from the first two chapters of American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center by William Langewiesche. It's a stunning first-person view of the recovery effort, and I couldn't help reading it in one sitting. It's worth the effort to borrow a copy of the recent issues. "Part One: The Inner World" appeared in the July/August 2002 issue; "Part Two: The Rush to Recover" is in the September 2002 issue.
What Next?
Even a year after the terrorist attacks, some of the same resources are apt.
Writing "The Disaster: Key Web Sites" provided a personal catharsis; in it are practical suggestions for anyone struggling to cope. I thought then, and still believe now, that the experience of last September gave us all a short, intensive burst of therapy, and pushed many of us to take a different perspective on life and those in our lives.
Contributing Editor Steve Bass is also a licensed marriage and family therapist.