Hope

The two best pictures I've taken are technically pretty bad. They were snapped on a three megapixel Sony camera that now belongs to my daughter. The colors aren't good, the image is grainy and it's poorly composed. But they were taken in New York City not long after 9-11.

They were taken inside St. Paul's, an Episcopal chapel located feet from Ground Zero. This was where emergency workers first brought the injured. Firemen and paramedics slept here for weeks. It remained a chapel but, in a matter of minutes, it became a hospital, a morgue and a hotel. Today it houses many of the things left behind - pictures of the workers and the missing, patches from uniforms of the hundreds of emergency teams who came to help from every corner of the country, banners made by schoolchildren showing support. The pews are forever scuffed, dented and grooved by the gurneys that were laid down upon them. Musicians played thoughout the day, even four years later.

Buildings are buildings. As much as we like to attribute a certain amount of character to them, they're buildings. They stand, they serve a purpose. And sometimes they fall. But people, well, people dream, feel, love, laugh, cry, try, fail and, most importantly, hope. In the cab ride to Ground Zero, I tried to prepare myself for the worst. But when we arrived, I saw only a construction site. A big hole in the ground. When I entered St. Paul's, though, I saw the tragedy, the real effect, the true cost. Remember those people.

Posted by Chris at September 11, 2012 7:27 AM