SAR dogs at ground zero.
September 11, 2019 9:50 AM   Subscribe

Clays & Birds twitter thread: "Every year as we move away from the events of 9/11, I find the images of the towers falling don’t impact the way they use to. I now try to focus on individual stories from that day to help remind me of the emotions I felt. This year I want to focus on the dogs of 9/11."
posted by jenkinsEar (17 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't think I've seen the images of the towers falling since around the time it happened.
posted by mokey at 9:59 AM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I don't think I've seen the images of the towers falling since around the time it happened.

A lot of shocking imagery that was published in those days, such as of people falling, has been sort of disappeared. I remember, uh, I think it was Romenesko's site, had an extremely horrible photo, which I won't describe since some people are sensitive to that kind of thing, illustrating a story about 9/11 coverage. I don't think this has happened to the footage of the tower collapse, but maybe some people feel like even that should be kind of sacralized and hidden.
posted by thelonius at 10:10 AM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


http://nielsenhayden.com/110.html

A poem about individuals. I don't know whether it's based on actual specific details.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 10:10 AM on September 11, 2019


.
posted by Fizz at 10:13 AM on September 11, 2019


This is the first time I’ve teared up today.
Thinking of ALL the selfless helpers on that terrible day and the days after.

.
posted by bookmammal at 10:16 AM on September 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I’ve got the book about 9/11 dogs from the memorial itself and it said that firefighters had to start hiding from their dogs and let them find them alive so that they would keep working with hope.


Heartbreaking. All of it.
posted by Glinn at 10:17 AM on September 11, 2019 [4 favorites]


They're Good Dogs Brent
posted by chavenet at 10:18 AM on September 11, 2019 [8 favorites]


I was across the street at my desk when it all went down that day, and I will never not watch any of the footage from that day. Being in the middle of it all made it somehow easier for me to deal with.
posted by AJaffe at 10:21 AM on September 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


It is interesting how time changes the way I revisit this day. I used to get so upset when people said “9/11” instead of “September 11” because it seemed so casual or something, and now that usage is pervasive and it doesn’t bother me. Eighteen years and this is the first year it hasn’t felt as solemn and sad as usual.
posted by sallybrown at 10:27 AM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


Every time I think I've gotten cynical about 9/11, writing it off as something that justifies 18 years of bad behavior by the US, something brings me back, and a tear to my eye.
posted by MrGuilt at 10:29 AM on September 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I don't think I've seen the images of the towers falling since around the time it happened.

I've tried to avoid it for the past 18 years. All it took was a picture of the inside of the 9/11 Museum to trigger a little tiny flashback with me; I've been trying to stay careful.

One of the things I have to do for my job is to do a quick troll through my boss's facebook; his Facebook friends feed rolls a little harder on the "never forget" imagery than my own friends, and today it was haaaaaaard.

....The only commemorations I seem to be able to stand:

* I can tomatoes at about that time, and repost to my blog the post I made where I talked about that on the 10th anniversary.
* I read the post that Sarah Bunting makes on her blog Tomato Nation, because she always does.
* My best friend texts me first thing in the morning every September 11th to tell me she loves me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:16 AM on September 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


I used to work at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. We got queries about dogs ALL the time, and a lot of misinformation hung around about them (I regularly used to have to politely respond to questions about why "Daisy" wasn't mentioned in the museum). But glancing through that Twitter thread it does all look pretty accurate; it's been a few years since I worked there but I remember that book by Nona Kilgore Bauer that they're drawing from.

We also frequently got complaints that Sirius, the dog who died in the South Tower, isn't included on the memorial along with the other victim names. Which is an understandable complaint; although as I recall the list of victim names was handed down directly from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of NYC or some other governmental body and so it wasn't really a Museum decision. Sirius's leash and some other items from his handler are in the collection and are on display, I think, unless they have been rotated out for conservation recently.
posted by cpatterson at 11:23 AM on September 11, 2019 [7 favorites]


I heard on the radio this morning that Rick Rescorla, subject of the 2002 New Yorker essay (which I think I was introduced to here) The Real Heroes Are Dead, was given a posthumous Presidential Citizens Medal. He is credited with saving around 3,000 lives during the evacuation of the Towers, in part because he ignored instructions to remain in place and encouraged others to escape.

The piece is worth reading if you have not already.

I was actually surprised that Rescorla hadn't been awarded the Citizens Medal before, and it's unfortunate that it fell to Trump to do so.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:23 AM on September 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


Eh, Trump's been in office for three years, signing stuff many days and staying busy. At some point he was going to do something to agree with, even by accident. This was the right thing to do, period.
posted by Cris E at 1:38 PM on September 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


Let’s not forget that Donald Trump’s first public statement that Tuesday was to call local TV to brag about now having the tallest building in downtown Manhattan (a lie) and that he later took federal grant money for the Trump Org intended to help small businesses rebuild.

But Bretagne, Riley, Appollo, Trakr, Sirius, Worf, Ricky, Hansen, Kaiser, Cowboy, Jake, Woody, Kinsey, Tascha, Guese, Thunder, Sage, Coby, Guinness, Joey, Tikva, and all the rest are good dogs.
posted by Doktor Zed at 2:30 PM on September 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


Dogs are the best...
posted by Windopaene at 3:18 PM on September 11, 2019


Trump is the Worst...
posted by Windopaene at 3:20 PM on September 11, 2019


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