by Thomas W. Krafft
September 11, 2002: Looking
over my journal this morning, I realized I had pretty much just stopped adding
entries after the first week. I had tried saying more a couple months later, but it's
just so difficult finding the words...
But, this morning at 6am, I lowered the flag in front of my house to half-staff.
Watching the first of the memorial services this morning, the feelings I'd tried to forget this past year have all come flooding back.
But the memories remain. I had worried I might forget the images of that day and all the little things I've experienced related to that event, since then ... but I will never forget. And some day soon, I'll put my small collection of memories to paper. Memories which include something that happened to me that afternoon, when I went to my local gas-station and entered to pay the man behind the counter. He was from that region of the world, and we locked eyes... It was only for a few seconds, but in that brief moment, without any words, he and I exchanged so many feelings and emotions. He wondered if I hated him, and I wondered if I should. We could read almost every emotion in each others' eyes in those seconds, and then I decided he and I were members of the same family - both sharing the pain of this terrible thing - while at the same time I could see that he had come to the same conclusion. We smiled slightly, in acceptance of one another, while exchanging our mutual sorrow, ...and then he handed me a small flag - which I still have in the window of my car to this day.
What follows is a collection of photos I've found since September 11th.
I will never be able to describe September 11th as fully as these pictures. And yet, for as powerful and moving as these pictures are, they will never be able to describe the experience nor tell the complete story of those who were there.
Click To Enlarge Picture
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