Mick Hartley

He falls for us.

A powerful piece for 9/11, by Tom Junod in Esquire, on the falling man photo:

[Photo: Richard Drew/AP]

It never occurred to me that there might be something shameful in the act of jumping from the WTC; the view which - the piece makes clear - has been mainstream opinion since. On the contrary, I saw it - I see it - as a final defiant act of self-affirmation in the face of the inevitable. The intense scorching heat, the smoke…better surely to make your own decision and leap, as an individual with a will, rather than wait to be consumed as a lump of flesh and bone by the inferno.

Unlike the falling man, though, it's not a decision the rest of us will ever have to make….