He ended his life on his own terms.

[DonRedwood]

A black man in a suit, his tie whipping around his head as he jumped to his death. I will never forget this man who made a choice to jump and end his life on his terms.

He is 9/11 to me. I will never forget him, but not because of patriotism...but because I have no choice. He is forever burned into my mind. He is part of what I have become in my adult life. I hope I have become a man who takes control of my destiny. When I face death I hope I do it with the same strength and power that this man did. He leapt at it. Death didn't take him...this guy tackled death.

[whathehell]

1. Are you talking about one of those in the Twin Towers who jumped?

[DonRedwood]

6. yes...sorry, i was a little verklempt when I wrote this.

[whathehell]

14. No problem!

If you tell me what "verklempt" means.

[abbeyco]

2. For years, he's been called "The Falling Man"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falling_Man

[DonRedwood]

8. I can't go look abbeyco

I just can't.

[Odin2005]

3. That image will horrify me until my dying day.

[whathehell]

4. "On his own terms"?...No disrespect intended toward the man, but I would have to say "Not really" in

answer to the idea that "He ended his life on his own terms".

A choice between a slow, painful death and a very quick one isn't much of a "choice".

[treestar]

12. I totally agree

He didn't end his life. Al Qaeda did.

[closeupready]

5. No, I think probably he was facing certain death either way, and

it was probably oven-hot and smokey in the top floors. If you were faced with a situation where you could either roast or choke to your death, or jump and it happens suddenly ... it's a sad dilemma, but one that many faced.

So I guess he did 'make a choice', but I'm pretty sure he didn't want to die, or end his life.

[DonRedwood]

7. No,I have never thought that. Not ever. But he decided how he would go out.

A horrible choice. Awful and I'm sobbing thinking of him, again.

Just a guy at work given a horrible choice between two deaths.

He picked the one that demanded action on his part.

There is a bravery in that that has earned my greatest respect especially since, as a child, I had severe reoccurring dreams of falling to my death at Hoover Dam.

I can't forget him, my words were meant to honor him, all of them. But he is 9/11 to me.

[closeupready]

9. I'm not trying to diminish your testament here

as to your feelings.

[dogday]

10. It was the groups of people holding each other's hand

that got to me. People who made the decision with others and together they jumped. I cannot begin to imagine how scared they were...

[napkinz]

11. History Channel is showing footage now

They aren't showing the people who jumped, but you hear those on the ground looking up saying, "There are jumpers."

Still gets to me.

[JI7]

13. i wouldn't describe it that way, he most likely knew he would die or it felt like torture

with the heat. most likely both.

but those people will always stay with me and it's one of the worst things about that day. what those people had to face.