Butcher recalls sitting in a meeting about collecting WTC artifacts some months later when a colleague blurted out something about the jumpers having committed suicide.
My boss was always calm and dignified, but at that moment I saw the strain on his face as he tried to maintain his composure.
His anger was palpable.
He put his hands flat on the table in front of him and said, “Never use those words. Never.”
They were pushed out, he explained, by flames and smoke.
In fact, writes Butcher, the death certificates of every person killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11 read "homicide." Homicide, she notes, is defined as “death at the hands of another.” The people who jumped had been fighting for their lives.
"It is a fact that terrorists pushed these people to their deaths, murdering them," concludes Butcher. //
That seems like a fair and small gesture that could be made to put things into perspective on one of the more gruesome, yet important, aspects of 9/11. People were literally pushed to what had to be the most terrifying decision of their lives.
