With 9/11 as G.O.P. Backdrop, Families Express Raw Emotions

When the Republicans chose New York City for their national convention, it was clear that the Sept. 11 attacks would provide an emotional backdrop.

Tomorrow, on the first night of the convention, relatives of victims will address the delegates. So will former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is expected to revisit Sept. 11 with the forcefulness of someone who helped to guide the city as the unthinkable events of that day unfolded.

With the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks coming little more than a week after the convention, a survey by The New York Times shows that those with the most personal connection to 9/11 - those who lost a loved one - differ from the public at large on some political and national issues: They are more skeptical about national safety and less impressed with the administration's efforts before and after the attacks.

Their views on the way the 9/11 investigation was handled are also complex. About half of the 339 people questioned faulted the Bush administration for not providing "adequate cooperation," but almost four in five said the administration was taking the commission's findings "somewhat seriously" or "very seriously." A majority said the federal government was still not doing enough to prevent terrorism, and almost as many expressed concern about another terrorist attack on New York. About half also said the city was not prepared to deal with one.

Both major parties have tried to form an emotional connection with the victims' families, but the survey indicates that the relatives have seesawing feelings about who to blame and who to vote for - feelings that will probably keep them from becoming political props this year.

"The intelligence agencies sit there with their suits and their Rolex watches, and people like my husband and the police and the Fire Department come in and fix up their mistakes," said Francine Raggio of Brooklyn, whose husband was working as an operations supervisor at the World Trade Center on 9/11. She said she would vote for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "Everybody is still cleaning up the mess from the government, the intelligence agencies."

Nor are the victims' relatives pleased that a political convention is about to open in New York. About half said the Republicans should have gone somewhere else. Slightly more than a quarter said the G.O.P. had chosen New York "to capitalize on Sept. 11," about the same number who said that the Republicans' motivation was "to support the city" and "show it's safe."

Along with all the ways the nation changed on Sept. 11 - the sudden emphasis on terrorism, the lingering worries about preparedness at ports and borders, the profound and sometimes prolonged grief - the destruction of the twin towers created a sprawling and wrenchingly complicated universe of loved ones: widows, parents, brothers, sisters, fiancees, close friends. On that clear, bright day of death, 2,749 people were killed at the trade center.

The Times set out to survey the universe of relatives and close friends of victims who died at the World Trade Center; relatives of those killed on the jetliners that crashed at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania were not included. The Times used standard survey methods in asking the questions and recording the answers, but the interview project differs from a typical poll. For one thing, the total population of victims' relatives cannot be determined, so the group cannot be sampled with the statistical precision of a poll. For that reason, no margin of sampling error could be calculated for the study, which was conducted Aug. 14-24.

Another way the study differs from a typical Times poll was unexpected: The process of interviewing respondents took longer than for a typical poll because many questions stirred still-raw emotions. Some respondents began crying, and one was so upset by a question about Mr. Bush that she began screaming. A typical telephone interview for a New York Times/CBS News Poll can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes. Some interviews for this study lasted more than an hour.

Politically, roughly a third of respondents call themselves Republicans and a third Democrats, a breakdown that is closer to the nation as a whole than to New York City, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly 5 to 1.

Of those questioned - 339 relatives or close friends chosen at random from listings compiled by The Times for the Portraits of Grief vignettes published in 2001 and 2002 - most said they had visited ground zero. One mother said she had been there 96 times. But about one in six respondents said they could not bring themselves to visit the site.

About two in five reported making major changes in their lives in the aftermath of the attacks. Some moved; some changed jobs or went back to school; a few said they no longer flew on airplanes. In response to a question about how long it took for life to get back to normal, about two in five people replied that life was not yet back to normal. A quarter of respondents said it never would be.

As for assigning blame, more people interviewed blamed former President Bill Clinton than blamed Mr. Bush for the awful human damage inflicted on American soil that day. More than three-quarters objected to the use of images from ground zero in television commercials for political campaigns. At the same time, more than half said Mr. Bush should visit ground zero while he is in New York for the convention.

By a 2-to-1 ratio, the respondents favored the basic design chosen for the 9/11 memorial. But they were divided on whether tall buildings should be constructed at the site at all. They expressed strong support for making the memorial towers of light a permanent addition to the downtown skyline.

But the questions in the interviews went beyond politics, and beyond the trade center attack and its immediate aftermath. About as many relatives said they saw the war in Iraq as a part of the war on terrorism - major or minor - as did not. More said the United States should not have gone into Iraq at the same time troops were fighting in Afghanistan, and three out of five said Iraq was not worth the cost in soldiers' lives.

Diane Fairben, whose son Keith was a paramedic who arrived at the trade center minutes after the first plane hit, said she remembered thinking when the war in Iraq began, "This is the beginning of more young people dying."

But her thinking mirrored the sometimes contradictory views of 9/11 families. "Certainly taking Hussein out of there was a good people for the people over there,'' she said. "I think that whole area of the world is tied to it, to terrorism, to 9/11, in some way - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, all of those countries. I really don't know. America couldn't just stand here and do nothing."

Mrs. Fairben, who described herself as a registered Democrat, said she expected to vote for Mr. Bush in November. She said Mr. Kerry's handling of attacks on his Vietnam record had not impressed her enough to win her vote. Also, she said, "I agree with the president right now that we've got to keep doing what we're doing in Iraq, and I'm afraid to think what would happen if Kerry would undo that."

Still, the relatives' view of the post-Sept. 11 world is not dominated by their concerns about terrorism to the exclusion of other issues. Fewer than a quarter of respondents said terrorism would be the single most important issue in their presidential vote. Roughly equal numbers said they had "a lot" or "some" confidence in Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry to make the decisions needed to protect the country against terrorism, though more expressed "a lot" of confidence in Mr. Bush.

Almost half of those in the study said they disapproved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job, slightly more than the 45 percent in a nationwide CBS News poll who answered the same question in the same way at about the same time the relatives' survey was conducted. But the president's approval rating was only 24 percent in a separate Times survey of New York City residents that was also done in mid-August. In that poll, 71 percent disapproved of Mr. Bush's performance as president.

"Bush has taken a situation where the allies were united behind the United States and instead of building on that, he polarized things," said Polly Perkins Johnson, who was dating a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, Edwin John Graf III.

But the issue of whether to blame Mr. Bush, who had been president for less than eight months on Sept. 11, divided the relatives. Sally Alameno, whose husband, Andrew, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment banking firm, faulted both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush, as well as the intelligence agencies. "No one was connecting the dots," said Mrs. Alameno, who said she planned to vote for Mr. Kerry in November. "That's what I find unbelievable."

Colleen Spohr, a firefighter's widow who said she voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 and would do so again this year, placed the responsibility with Mr. Clinton. "I believe Clinton knew a lot and didn't tell Bush about it when he came into office," she said.

Almost two-thirds of the relatives questioned said they believed Mr. Kerry would "make the right decisions'' on protecting the country from terrorism - the same number that said that about Mr. Bush. But more said they had "a lot" of confidence in Mr. Bush.

As for assigning blame, more people interviewed blamed former President Bill Clinton than blamed Mr. Bush for the awful human damage inflicted on American soil that day.

It's unbelievable that the NY Slimes is actually publishing this!

In other news, NYPD or FBI or whatever have arrested a pair of guys with plans to blow up subways just blocks away from Madison Square Garden, among other targets. Of course, the radio reports that these were NOT terrorists, and their plans had NOTHING to do with the convention. Haven't seen it posted, just been hearing it on the radio.

NOT terrorists, and NOT convention-related.........just a co-inky-dink, I suppose.

As time moves on toward the election, fewer and fewer want the big liar to win. I am beginning to think that would include the NY Slimes. Their connection to the Clintoni machine is well known.

Do I detect the "slight" odor of conspiracy in the air ???

(chuckle)

I saw something saying that they were definitely not al Qaida terrorists (it did say they were terrorists). My guess is that it was your garden variety hippy anarchists, who no doubt were equally angered that sKerry was nominated over Dean or Kucinich, so they will be voting for Nader unless they get a bad hit of LSD and are too freaked-out to go to the polls.

They are more skeptical about national safety and less impressed with the administration's efforts before and after the attacks.

This is emotional absurdity for if they were objective in their concerns for the efforts being put forth, they would be professing the making of a glass parking lot out of most of the Middle East.

I wonder what the Old Media's reaction would be if this television commercial ran on September 11?

(Click to go to web page and view commercial)

"Humane Humanity" speaks of the profound value of all human life. The text is gentle and images impactful: "Over the years, humanity has made terrible mistakes. People were treated as less than human, even killed because they were a different skin color, a different faith, because they were unknown, unplanned and helpless.

But over time, we are slowing learning that we are all God's children, created in his image. And to disregard the value of human life, whether through hate or indifference...is wrong.

That all human creation regardless of race, religion, abilities or stage of human life, has an inalienable right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A right to love and be loved.

As Americans, let's cherish the sanctity of human life, because we know how it feels when others treat us as less than human."

(End Tag): Life. Respect it. Protect it.
The images feature unborn and newborn babies, families, people of color and different faiths, handicapped, elderly, etc.. and ends with a powerful 9/11 image.

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