Pulitzer Prize
I'm reading the most gripping account of 9/11 I think could possibly be written. I recently subscribed to the Atlantic Monthly for a number of reasons: a good writeup about the magazine in the Boston Globe; a mix of writers I enjoy reading (Chris Hitchens, PJ O'Rourke, Robert Kaplan); and the overall focus of the magazine itself - especially the aim to tell stories in a longer, more detailed manner.

But as I was saying, the Atlantic has published a 3 part, 20,000 word account of the WTC attack, collapse, and subsequent recovery effort. The detail is astounding. The author had unrestricted access to Ground Zero for 9 months and got to know all the major and many of the minor characters involved in the planning, direction, and execution of the excavation of the site. The science of the event is explored - the manner in which the towers were constructed, how they were able to absorb the impacts of fuel laden Boeings travelling in excess of 500 MPH at time of impact. Detail is given how the buildings collapsed - what forces acted on them to cause them to implode. Personal stories are told by survivors and the decisions great and minor that allowed them to live. In the case of one man (who was in a stairwell on a floor in the 20s of the North Tower), the collapse happened around him. He heard the tremendous roar of floors collapsing above him. As the sound approached and certain death seemed imminent, he held himself tight and closed his eyes. He saw stars about 4 times as he was struck on the head by debris. He could hear entire walls pulling away from around him - then the feel of momentary weightlessness as the floor underneath him gave way. His final impact landed him on the top of a suspended concrete slab, blue sky, smoke, and pulverized concrete all around him. He at first thought he was in heaven. But the pain of a broken ankle told him otherwise (his most serious injury). He was alive, and somehow survived the entire shedding of the concrete and steel skin that was part of the North Tower. Somehow, the 70-80 floors that were above him had managed to fall around him rather than on him.

Other details are given, and problems that the dominant media outlets rarely (if at all) touched upon. The suspect integrity of the slurry wall that protected the entire WTC foundation from the tidal flows of the Hudson and NY Harbor. The mechanics of soil and water pressure and the danger they posed for the engineers on the site. The coordination of municipal, state, and federal agencies along with the contracting of numerous private firms to get the recovery effort underway as quickly as possible. The personalities involved, the procedures that were written, reimagined, or largely ignored as the magnitude of the effort came into focus and as it became clear that nobody really had any idea at first how something like this could happen and how it could be cleaned up.

We will no doubt be inundated with 9/11 imagery, retrospection, and rehashing ad nauseum from the major news networks. However repetious and crass it may be (hopefully not), we must never forget that terrible day - not because we need to relive the sadness and horror of the event, but because we can learn so much about what is right and what is just and what is honorable in those people who died only because they showed up for work one day in September, and as well as from those people who continue to work right now in their memory. The police, the fire departments, the EMTs, the nurses, the construction engineers, the sandhogs, the ironworkers, the soldiers, the pilots, the tech gurus poring over satellite data, the special ops guys, the relief workers delivering food, school materials, and hope. Don't freeze 9/11 with the familiar imagery of horror, death, and destruction. Instead remember 9/11 with what continues today - a renewed spirit, a greater sense of purpose, a promise to live a fuller life, and a determination to make sure that justice prevails.