Tribute to Daniel Hal Crisman: Victim of 9/11/2001 Terrorist Attacks

Daniel Hal Crisman was 25 years old when he died on September 11, 2001, as a result of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Just ten days before, he had been made a permanent employee of March & McLennan Companies, after working there as a temp on tentative status. His new role was training coordinator. His girlfriend, Danielle Zazula, was quoted by the New York Times as saying that “He really felt like he had made it. He felt like he had achieved a level of success in his life,” after learning the news of his training coordinator job. Daniel met Ms. Zazula at a poetry workshop, according to the Times, where both of them read some of their work. Daniel had taken up photography not long before he died.

On September 11, 2001, 2996 people died as a direct result of the terrorist attacks. When one considers the personal story of just one of them, the magnitude of the tragedy becomes almost incomprehensible. And, looking at what has happened since that time and all the people who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq and throughout the middle east, the magnitude of the horrors of terrorist attacks, war, revenge, and hatred become even more incredible.

When I agreed to post a tribute to him on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 2001, I decided I would do a bit of research to find out more about him. All I had, initially, was his name. I found the information above by doing some simple searches online. I was struck by the fact that a number of people who did not personally know him expressed, in online postings, their sympathies to his family and shared their sorrow at his loss. More information about him and comments left by friends, family, and strangers can be found here.

While I do not support the Bush Administration's ongoing 'war on terror,' I do deeply grieve for the men and women and children who, for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, suffered at the hands of religious zealots whose warped sense of justice would allow them to behave as evil beasts.

Here's to the memory of Daniel Hal Crisman.