Horror of 9/11 Captured in a Photograph

Thank you for both Richard Drew’s Sept. 10 commentary, “The Horror of 9/11 That’s All Too Familiar,” and the reprint of his picture in a size appropriate to its importance. In addition to being a stunning photograph -- in both the aesthetic and the emotional sense -- I believe it is also iconic of the most widely shared horror that’s too rarely articulated but “won’t go away,” to paraphrase Drew’s family.

His essay captures so lucidly one man’s sense of that shared horror that I am overwhelmed anew by all of the sadness, as well as the responsibility contained in the refrain of all survivors everywhere: “There but for the grace of God go I.” A testament to Drew’s profound artistry.

Penelope Roeder

Los Angeles

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The second in time so stunningly captured by photographer Drew on 9/11 of the falling man symbolizes where all of us in America have been headed financially and morally the past decade: out of control and spiraling downward.

Dolores Long

Van Nuys

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Thank you for printing Drew’s photograph. As horribly tragic as it is, it is no more so than the hundreds of others that we saw of the 9/11 attacks. The larger issue here is that of censorship. Once we stop printing photos and articles merely because readers may not find them appropriate over “their morning cornflakes,” we take one step closer to losing our freedom of the press. Drew should not have to write justifying his reasons for having shot this photo. Who’s to judge?

Stuart Lubin

Los Angeles