Family and friends of those who died in the terror attacks of September 11th gathered today at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, paying tribute and shedding tears at the World Trade Center.
I’m sorry, but there’s just something wrong about a photographer going around and taking pictures of people crying like this. These people should be able to enjoy a moment in remembrance without a camera in their face and their picture on the Internet. I hope Buzzfeed doesn’t do another article like this.
I didn’t expect to bawl my eyes out but I definitely did. 17, 32 and 35 really did it.
Intensely moving. The part that kills me is these family and friends have to relive this pain, if not daily, then yearly. Someday I hope these wounds heal.
I clicked on this page without hesitation, but then I thought, why would I look at this, it will be 56 photos of pure grief, raw emotion and complete and utter sadness from those who have lost loved ones. Why would I want to see this?
I sat here, in the waiting area of a busy bus station in London, for a few minutes just thinking what on earth motivates me, and others, to look at this sort of thing, even why would you stand around taking pictures of what is an incredibly personal moment. Maybe it was to recognise how short life is, maybe it would make me realise just how much I love my family and friends, maybe I get some unconscious pleasure from seeing people going through pain, to make me feel better about my life. I really don’t know.
Needless to say, I looked at the photos, and cried the whole way through. A woman even came up to me and asked me if I was okay, I just looked at her, without saying anything, hoping maybe some words would come out and make sense of a 20 year old guy sitting in public crying, or she would for some reason look at me and realise what I was crying about.
Even more baffling, now i’m on my coach and going back to university, I realised if anything ever popped up like this again, showing grief and sadness at the scene of any other atrocity or disaster, i would look at it again.
What the bloody hell is wrong with us.
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