September 11, 2015

911_ large promoToday, September 11th, we will relive that nightmarish day of 2001. We will relive it no matter how hard we try to suppress it. We will read the stories and blogs. Call family and friends. See the photos, yet again. And replay that footage over and over.

What I will remember most about that day and the weeks that followed will be the people who lost their lives or were badly injured. I will remember their loved ones. I will remember how our country stood together and came together to help and heal. I wish we could come together in that manner again, but without requiring a tragic catalyst.

I am no stranger to New York, having visited many, many times across decades. I entered the Towers as a tourist and ate at Windows on the World in the North Tower as a client in the mid 1980’s. I can go back even further to the time Philippe Petit made his fantastical walk between the Towers in 1974. That act was a sort of a human christening of the Towers. A monumental, almost superhuman tribute to the trident based, colossal cuboids.

They were larger than life, and they were beautiful. The Towers are gone. Thousand of people were tragically lost. Neither will ever be forgotten.

Scan (2)Copyright ©1986, Steve A Furman personal photo archives

My 7 year old son experiencing the 9/11 Memorial first hand in 2012

Copyright ©2012, Steve A Furman personal photo archives

Related Post features a photo gallery of the 9/11 Memorial weeks after it first opened.

Another 9/11 Anniversary

It has been an astonishing eight years since that fateful morning. We watched the towers fall. It was less than two hours from impact to compression. I remember it as if was yesterday, maybe even today. I will be taking a moment to honor those who lost their lives or were permanently injured, and keep the surviving family members in my thoughts throughout the day.

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There has been a lot of debate about what to do with the site. It’s not fully set yet, but the committee is getting closer to a final plan.

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Visit the Lower Manhattan Development web site here.

Remembering September 11, 2001

The towers have been gone for seven years now, and with them over 3,000 who lost their lives there, at the Pentagon and in the Pennsylvania plane crash. They are sorely missed. Many others suffered injuries that day and survived. What to do with that sacred ground in New York has been the topic of much discussion and review since the attacks. Officials are trying to balance the need to respect those that lost their lives with the economic opportunity that this location affords.

There is some movement on the site now, as steal for the new structures has been delivered. But the process is proceeding slowly. You can check on on the progress at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation site here.

The rebuilding is being captured on film minute by minute, as it happens. It’s the most extensive implementation of time lapse photography ever undertaken. Have a look at the work in progress at the Project Rebirth site here.

This is a day to reflect, remember and reaffirm.