What we’re reading (9/11)
“Remembering 9/11” (DealBook). “Within the business district surrounding the twin towers, it was ‘nearly impossible to find an employee of any major financial firm who was not wondering about the fate of someone, a business school classmate, a rival deal maker or a familiar voice at the other end of a trading line.’ There were thousands of workers missing from Wall Street, which then employed about 200,000 people.”
“‘We’re the Only Plane in the Sky’” (Politico). “Nearly every American above a certain age remembers precisely where they were on September 11, 2001. But for a tiny handful of people, those memories touch American presidential history. Shortly after the attacks began, the most powerful man in the world, who had been informed of the World Trade Center explosions in a Florida classroom, was escorted to a runway and sent to the safest place his handlers could think of: the open sky.”
“The Falling Man” (Esquire). “In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity's divine suction or by what awaits him.”
“The Heroes Of 9/11 — And Long After” (New York Post). “We know the names of a lot of heroes who died that day: Todd Beamer, who said ‘Let’s roll’ on Flight 93 and didn’t let the flight become another missile. NYPD officer John Perry, who was handing in his retirement paperwork that morning but ran to the towers to help. FDNY chaplain Fr. Mychal Judge, who died bringing comfort to others. NYPD officer Moira Smith, the first to report the attacks that morning, who never stopped helping. We know the stories: The man in the red bandana who made many trips up to save people while others headed down. Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 in Midtown, which suffered the largest loss that day of any firehouse when 15 of its firefighters did not return.”
“How The Wall Street Journal Published On 9/11” (Wall Street Journal). “The story of the men and women who worked for this newspaper on 9/11 has been underreported, no doubt because of the paper’s understandable concerns of coming across as self-aggrandizing. Such apprehensions are unnecessary. What the Journal achieved on 9/11 was an All-American triumph—and a template for how to sustain a collective body blow, set aside trauma and respond. On 9/11, the Journal’s headquarters—located across the street from the World Trade Center—was decimated by fallout from the Twin Towers. In its 112-year history, the Journal had never faced a comparable threat to silence its presses.”
