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Wednesday, September 15, 2004

9/11 Widows Endorse Kerry
There are two items I came across today about the 9/11 Widows and their endorsement of John Kerry today.

1. Kristen Breitweiser gave some incredible comments in a CNN interview with Judy Woodruff. LiberalOasis believes that Breitweiser may be the "most powerful advocate for Kerry in the country." Consider excerpts from the transcript. (Thanks to LiberalOasis for the link.)

Read the whole transcript here.

BREITWEISER: ...I spent, along with the other 9/11 family members, three years trying to get 9/11 issues addressed by this administration.

And it's been a long fight, and I use the word fight because that's what it was.

And I think it's disappointing to be this far removed from 9/11 and to still not feel as safe as we could be feeling...

...We tried to have accountability assigned, and it's just not happening under this administration.

And I have a five-year-old daughter. I want to know that I'm safer than I am right now.

And President Bush has not put me in that place, and I believe Senator Kerry will.

WOODRUFF: You said that you voted for George W. Bush in 2000. What has turned you around?

BREITWEISER: I think my own personal experience in the last three years...

...I'd hoped that President Bush -- someone that I voted for, that my husband voted for -- would have been my biggest ally in trying to correct the problems that occurred on the morning of September 11th and trying to make this nation safer.

And what I found out, for the last three years, is that he was our biggest adversary.

And I'm very disappointed --

WOODRUFF: Specifically because he what?

BREITWEISER: With regard to the 9/11 Commission, President Bush:

Fought the creation of the commission;

Fought the legislative language to make sure the commission was set up in a bipartisan manner;

Fought the funding of the commission;

Fought an extension for the commission;

Fought access to individuals and documents.

...

WOODRUFF: But in the last analysis, the president did come around on most of that, didn't he?

BREITWEISER: He came around after he was backed into a corner and after a 90-8 vote in the Senate. And it was a long year.

And I wonder, what if the president had started his own commission in the days after 9/11, much like happened in Pearl Harbor.

Maybe this wouldn't be a campaign issue this year. Maybe national security would be taken care of. Maybe I would feel safe.

Maybe I wouldn't be so scared three years since 9/11.

And I think it's terribly sad that it is an issue in this campaign, because it's an issue -- because it hasn't been taken care of.

WOODRUFF: Are you going to get involved in his campaign? Will you campaign for him?

You were just telling me that you haven't flown in an airplane since 9/11.

BREITWEISER: I have not flown in an airplane since 9/11.

When I see planes in the sky, I have flashbacks of the plane entering my husband's building.

I have committed to the campaign that I will travel. I want to get the word out.

I want the people in this country to understand that national security must be a priority -- a priority in action, not just in words.

And I'm willing to get on a plane. And assuming I can do that, I will do that.

And that is how committed I am, and how much I believe in Senator Kerry being our president.

WOODRUFF: Some people are going to ask, were you in any way used by this campaign?

Are they in any way taking advantage of your obvious and understandable emotions in order to get you to --

BREITWEISER: And I can tell you from my heart, I reached out to the Kerry campaign.

I reached out after the Republican convention that was in New York.

And I felt that listening to people talk about 9/11 as incessantly as it was done during the campaign, or the convention in New York --

If you're going to use 9/11, use it to make this nation safer than it was on 9/11.

And that's not being done...

...Don't use 9/11 to go to war in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 -- not on my husband's name. The war in Iraq has increased recruitment of Al Qaeda. It has increased animosity and hatred toward Americans. I want to know that I'm safer. I lost my husband. I want to know that my daughter and I are safer. And President Bush hasn't done that.

2. Salon printed a feature article "President Bush Thwarted Our Attempts at Every Turn" about the endorsement today and how the 9/11 Widows, because of their determination and thirst to know the truth, are the reason we know what we know about 9/11 today. Here are a few excerpts from that article:

Over the last three years, the group of 9/11 widows turned activists dubbed the "Jersey Girls" have become a fixture on the Washington political scene. Some of them are Republicans, others Democrats or independents. But they are all determined to hold official Washington accountable for the attacks that killed their husbands and nearly 3,000 others. They have held news conferences, lobbied members of Congress, pored over documents, and forced the White House to accept an independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Along the way, the women have learned about coverups, obfuscation, political cowardice, deceptions and the dangers of eschewing international alliances for a go-it-alone foreign policy.

And their conclusion: For the sake of the country's future, John Kerry must replace George W. Bush.

*****

The Jersey Girls are. They have read seemingly every scrap of information about 9/11 and al-Qaida, from news articles to affidavits to footnotes in obscure government reports. And their command of the facts is what has made them so effective. On Sept. 18, 2002, when much of the public was still sympathetic to the Bush administration position that the attacks could not have been foreseen or prevented, Breitweiser gave a statement before the joint House-Senate investigation into intelligence lapses; it may have changed the course of history.

And you know what makes this endorsement highly legit? The fact that they approached Kerry. Kerry didn't come after their endorsement.

9:38:06 PM | COMMENT [] | TRACKBACK []

Sam Swopes: I Am A Pencil

The other evening, while driving to the gym, I heard Melissa Block’s touching interview with Sam Swopes about his new book I Am A Pencil. Years ago, Swopes was struggling as a writer. The ideas weren’t coming to him as freely as usual; his passion to write was weak. So he chose to help children at the local elementary school in Queens develop skills of writing and expressing themselves. What started out as a 10-day project for third graders turned into a three-year project. He mentored students from 21 countries. I Am A Pencil is a culmination of his experiences with his students and the stories and poems created by his students. The most touching aspect of Block’s interview came when she walked Swopes through a series of questions about the poems created by the children during their 17 days visiting Central Park. Since these kids lived in the inner-city, going to Central Park was the first time they had ever been in nature. Some of the poems Swopes and Block read on air, especially one from Su Jung, were thoughtful and impressive, considering these were mere fifth graders.

For your consideration, this is an excerpt about his student Maya: Maya was a model student with a peaceful, pleasant manner. When we studied Stevens, I did not sense that anything was wrong, and did not know her favorite uncle had just died, or that her best friend had betrayed her. It wasn’t until sometime later that her mother called to tell me Maya was often overwhelmed with tears and cried out to her parents, "I want to die! I want to die!"

As still as night
as night is
still
The wind blows
the bird chirps
the dog barks
but still
the tree is still.
The bark falls off
but there is no sign
of pain, or suffering.
How can this be?
No pain,
no nothing that a
human has.
So giving
and strong,
nothing really
in its way.
-- Maya
Read more excerpts from this book here.

8:59:30 PM | COMMENT [] | TRACKBACK []