tp168.xml
Title
tp168.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-03-03
TomPaine Story: Story
THE HOME ON 9/11: agenda interrupted
In the retirement home's living room that morning, several elderly
residents are relaxing after breakfast, watching TV, getting ready for their
community exercise period - a regimen that contributes to the quiet
dimensions of their daily lives. The program is suddenly interrupted by
breaking news and the residents are becoming upset at what the announcer is
saying, starting to speak loudly to one another: ""incredible, outrageous,
awful..."" A few of them are starting to cry, touching one another. Then,
after a pause, they all shout at once, some jumping out of their chairs,
pointing at the TV. The shouting and yelling does on for several minutes
until a few nurses arrive, attracted by this disturbance, themselves
becoming upset.
Why such wailing? The announcer estimates that fifty thousand people
have been working in the World Trade Center complex of buildings into which
two airliners have just crashed, full of passengers and fuel. Eight
thousand body bags are being made available to the rescuers, a rough
estimate of how many fatalities are expected. A woman walking a stroller a
mile away when the first tower collapses is caught in a wall of debris, dirt
and soot and simply disappears.
Meanwhile, as reported live on CNN, many Palestinians are celebrating in
the streets, shooting guns off harmlessly, singing and jumping out of sheer
joy, distributing candies to cheering children.
Difficult juxtaposition of images.
Relatives of the missing are desperately walking around New York City
with photographs of their loved ones, but that is no longer the condition of
many of the bodies that they are looking for. Some bodies are now part of
all that ash; the others are in pieces, identifiable only by DNA analysis.
Hospitals are releasing lists of body parts: we have a lady's lower
arm...can you identify this watch? we have a muscular upper arm...can you
identify this tattoo?
All the home's residents are fixed to the television set for most of the
day and evening, missing meals and activities. Few residents at the home
can sleep that night. Memories of Pearl Harbor keeps them awake. Are we
going to war again? Will it be the grandchildren's turn to disappear? You
can hear the whispering - comparisons of World War II and Korean War
stories. In some rooms, the whispering goes on into the early hours of the
next morning. Yes, of course, it is happening again! Haven't you had
enough time to build such unexpected interruptions into your daily schedule
yet? Haven't you lived long enough to know better, for crying out loud??
In the retirement home's living room that morning, several elderly
residents are relaxing after breakfast, watching TV, getting ready for their
community exercise period - a regimen that contributes to the quiet
dimensions of their daily lives. The program is suddenly interrupted by
breaking news and the residents are becoming upset at what the announcer is
saying, starting to speak loudly to one another: ""incredible, outrageous,
awful..."" A few of them are starting to cry, touching one another. Then,
after a pause, they all shout at once, some jumping out of their chairs,
pointing at the TV. The shouting and yelling does on for several minutes
until a few nurses arrive, attracted by this disturbance, themselves
becoming upset.
Why such wailing? The announcer estimates that fifty thousand people
have been working in the World Trade Center complex of buildings into which
two airliners have just crashed, full of passengers and fuel. Eight
thousand body bags are being made available to the rescuers, a rough
estimate of how many fatalities are expected. A woman walking a stroller a
mile away when the first tower collapses is caught in a wall of debris, dirt
and soot and simply disappears.
Meanwhile, as reported live on CNN, many Palestinians are celebrating in
the streets, shooting guns off harmlessly, singing and jumping out of sheer
joy, distributing candies to cheering children.
Difficult juxtaposition of images.
Relatives of the missing are desperately walking around New York City
with photographs of their loved ones, but that is no longer the condition of
many of the bodies that they are looking for. Some bodies are now part of
all that ash; the others are in pieces, identifiable only by DNA analysis.
Hospitals are releasing lists of body parts: we have a lady's lower
arm...can you identify this watch? we have a muscular upper arm...can you
identify this tattoo?
All the home's residents are fixed to the television set for most of the
day and evening, missing meals and activities. Few residents at the home
can sleep that night. Memories of Pearl Harbor keeps them awake. Are we
going to war again? Will it be the grandchildren's turn to disappear? You
can hear the whispering - comparisons of World War II and Korean War
stories. In some rooms, the whispering goes on into the early hours of the
next morning. Yes, of course, it is happening again! Haven't you had
enough time to build such unexpected interruptions into your daily schedule
yet? Haven't you lived long enough to know better, for crying out loud??
Collection
Citation
“tp168.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed October 7, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/656.