A grisly reminder
It's ben reported that some human remains were found near Ground Zero. Four years after the terrorist attack we are still finding reminders of that horrific day. Ten human bone fragments were discovered discovered on the rooftop of the nearby skyscraper The Deutsche Bank, that is shrouded in black netting -to me it looks like a burqa- and that is scheduled for demolition. The only thing that made the burqa image to fade away is the large American flag that covers the facade since 2002. In the photograph, the Deutsche Bank Building is a tall building at the center right.
"The pieces of bone, ranging in size from half an inch to two inches, were found on three days last month by construction workers sifting through gravel on top of the former Deutsche Bank building, officials said."
Whenever some liberal start saying something about the war in Iraq, please remind them of this, I mean, before you smack them.
The Deutsche Bank was hit by parts of the trade center's south tower that gashed open the 41-story building's facade when it collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.
"We're hoping to be able to create some profiles," said Ellen Borakove, the city medical examiner's spokeswoman. They are facing the task of extracting and analyzing DNA from the bone fragments.
The city has recovered 19,964 pieces of human remains from the trade center attack and identified 9,100 of them, Borakove said. Of the 2,749 people who died at the trade center, 1,152 victims have no identifiable remains.
The medical examiner's office has said that more sophisticated DNA technology may someday develop to help identify the remains. Until then, they will remain in city custody and will eventually be encased at the trade center memorial.
2 Comments:
On May 2002 I finally had the valor to visit ground zero. I went with two friends who had come from Cuba and wanted pictures of downtown Manhattan. I just could not get near enough to ground zero in a way where I could keep my composure so I satyed about 5 bocks away. They went ahead and approached the site and on their way back their eyes were full of tears.
In what I thought was a little macabre exercise, they picked up fragments of glass that were still lying around the floor. I just looked around and a very strange VERY round piece of something caught my attention. It looked almost like a baseball sized meatball fully breaded in dirt. My curiosity got the best of me and I kneeled down and picked it up. It felt crunchy, but when I pressed harder it broke into pieces of whitish brown gelatin with a very distinct smell of burned flesh . I have no idea what that was but, in my heart I feel that was a part of some human being i had just picked up.
A million thoughts go thru your mind at that moment. How did this piece of flesh land almost 5 blocks away from the explosion, why so very perfectly round , what part of flesh this was (if it was flesh). Whatever it was, I dug a hole in the little garden where I found it and buried it. I bought a bottle of seltzer water and washed my hands and drove back home in utter silence.
THAT was my ground Zero moment. I held the innards of a human being in my hands and in my own way gave it proper burial. I will never forget, the people with me will never forget.
I only have a single regret about Afghanistan and Iraq, and that is that we left ANYTHING standing up. That the top al-Qaeda members are now basking in the relative peace offered by the IRAN government but 3 thousand families will never again know peace.
The world has REALLY never seen a vengeful USA and I LONG for the day when we make our wrath known in no uncertain terms. Perhaps that day my heart will experience closure on 9/11, because anyone who says that vengeance does not bring relief is someone who is afraid of vengeance.
I remember this old Chinese guy vaccuuming up Ground Zero dust and broken bits of buildings with a portable vaccuum cleaner to sell as tourist tschotchkas in the first two weeks after 9-11.
I remember visiting Josh Feinman at the Deutsche Bank Building well - it was a pretty building, all white and marbled and with tropical plants and a fake waterfall fountain.
Now, a tomb.
God, what an awful story you had, Charlie.
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