9/11

A cartoonist's perspective

Tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of the day the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Flight 93 were attacked by zealots inspired by a diabolical wealthy megalomaniac. Thousands died. I set about sketching as I watched the horror unfold. Here are my drawings from that time.

9-11: A Cartoonist’s Perspective

On the one-year anniversary of 9-11

Here, in order, were my responses to the daily news as the days unfolded. Back then I drew in a loose style, unlike the Chuck Jones’ style of cartooning I came to embrace.

Cartoons arranged in chronological order by David Fitzsimmons

I feared America would overreact or do something stupid, in haste, like attack the wrong country or ask us to forfeit many of our civil liberties.

The consequences of 9-11

My fears were confirmed.

We attacked the wrong country.

We opened a prison that remains a grotesque human rights violation to this day.

And we unleashed Orwellian surveillance on ourselves.

And for too long our disgusting Congress overlooked the special health care needs of our 9-11 responders, our patriots, our brave.

Uncle Sam at the Twin Towers memorial he constructed in haste

A rumination from 2013

Iraq

Afghanistan

Into the smoke

In 2003 when my daughter, Sarah, earned a scholarship to the University of Arizona I rewarded her with a trip to Manhattan. While there we visited the wreckage of the Twin Towers. The beautiful Twin Towers Memorial was years ahead in the future. Standing there in silence, stunned by the scale of the carnage, the void and the madness the words of “Into the Fire”, a poetic song by Bruce Springsteen rose up in my heart, capturing the unimaginable sorrow. A year earlier, in 2002 Springsteen released an album devoted to the Twin Towers tragedy called “The Rising”. “Into the Fire”, his tribute, his hymn to the responders who went into the smoke, is as powerful today as it was when it looped through my head as we stood there.

Here is a link to "Into the Fire" by Bruce Springsteen

And here are the lyrics, which I abridged:

Into the Fire by Bruce Springsteen

“Somewhere up the stairs, The sky was falling
And streaked with blood
I heard you calling me
Then you disappeared into the dust

Up the stairs, into the fire
Yeah, up the stairs, into the fire
I need your kiss
But love and duty called you some place higher
Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire

May your strength give us strength
May your faith give us faith
May your hope give us hope
May your love bring us love”

Tomorrow let us commit ourselves

Tomorrow let us commit ourselves to honoring the memory of the dead by renouncing hate in the name of love.

Tomorrow let us commit ourselves to honoring the memory of the dead by finding strength in the example of those Americans who went up into the smoke that day. Those Americans who rushed the cockpit. Those Americans who avenged the dead.

Tomorrow let us commit ourselves to honoring the memory of the dead by encouraging each other’s faith in whatever sustains us in such dark times.

And let us commit ourselves to always erring on the side of hope. The hope that tomorrow will always be better than today.