Posted on 06/08/2006 10:59:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I was ready to give up on Ann Coulter. Even as a fan and a strong conservative, I found her questioning of the 9/11 widows in Godless hysterical and heartless. I thought it sad that such a brilliant mind had become unhinged. Saying that the Jersey Girls, the four women who lost husbands at 9/11, were "enjoying" their husbands' deaths? Ann -- time for rehab.
But then I saw the response from Kristen Breitweiser and the other 9/11 widows. Despite myself, against myself, a small fissure found its way into my disappointment. Don't bring it up, I told myself. To question grieving people is an attack not on their politics but their personhood. It is beneath you. Let it go.
But the more I saw the Jersey Girls' press release, the more that fissure widened. They defended their criticism of the lack of preparation for 9/11 -- a lack they claim continues to this day -- and called for civil right oversight, stronger border security, and better defense at ports and airports. Before the list came this: "Contrary to Ms. Coulter's statements, there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again. We adored these men and miss them every day."
I read that, and a thought came to mind. I tried to push it away, ignore it. But I simply could not get that line out of my mind: "there was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive."
But I couldn't get around it.
What person describes the death of a loved one in such detail?
Think about it. Think about people you've loved who have died, and how they died. When I was in high school in the early 1980s a friend was killed in a devastating driving accident There was an open casket at the funeral, and afterwards me and a group of buddies went to the roof of one of their houses and sat there talking all night. We talked about football, girls, sadness, the weather, depression, our parents -- everything except what we saw in that coffin. To this day it's referred to as "the night Dale (not his real name) died." Ten years ago, my father died of cancer. I can hardly bring myself to say the word, much less describe what he looked like and went through in the last months. When I meet someone who had a loved one suffer a similar fate, the conversation always trails off when we mention our common story. One of us will mutter, "it's a terrible thing," then change the conversation.
Curse me, I know I'm going to hell for this: Why did the Jersey Girls describe the deaths of their husbands with such startling precision? "Men that we loved burned alive." My mind wanders back to the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. In one powerful episode that was recounted in Harper's magazine, the father of a girl who was killed when the plane went down asked about justice. He turned on the reporter and said, "How can there be any justice in this cruel world?" It is to make one weep. This poor soul gave no details, but delivered a powerful existential wail of pain: how can the cosmic scales of justice be righted when I've lost my girl? Think of that space in death (and the ineffable splendor of love) that unites us as humans created by God. It's the space that creates a zone of quiet respect, mystery, and even fear that stops us short of details when the death of a loved one comes up. We evade out of deference to the tragedy of death, its inevitability, and the idea that it is a mystery allowed by God that we may at some point get to understand. It is where we are equal as persons, and politics disappears.
To inspect the details of death, reveal them, announce them, is often the province of the propagandist or social activist. It's the gun control advocate who announces at the town meeting, "My son's brains were splattered all over me." The seatbelt champion showing slides of bodies in pieces. The reporter who will pick over every drop of blood spilled at Haditha.
It was the Paul Wellstone funeral.
When Ann Coulter doubted the 9/11 widows' grief, one way to prove her wrong would have been to respond not with a bullet-point memo about the failures of George Bush, but to simply say: Ann, you have entered a sacred space and violated it. We will not describe how our husbands died -- that is a silent place of pain between us and God. We have political differences with Miss Coulter, but we do share a common humanity. It is that humanity which she has soiled. We will pray for her, and for the United States of America.
Instead, they created a visual that no American doubts, or wants to contemplate. Not because we are cowards, but because we know the reality all too well. Our rage -- some of us anyway -- has hardened into steel resolve to see this through and support those fighting for us. One gets the sense that Breitweiser & Co. decided to rachet up the imagery to score political points. Saying our husbands died because we weren't prepared just doesn't pack the same punch as: they burned alive, and Bush could have prevented it -- and may cause more of it. One is philosophy, spirituality, and love of country. The other is politics.
Mark Gauvreau Judge is the author of God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling (Crossroad, 2005) and Damn Senators: My Grandfather and the Story of Washington's Only World Series Championship (Encounter, 2003).
Oops.
On the (late) evening of July 3rd, I was shot in the chest by some Gotti-wannabe using a .357 Magnum w/cop killer bullets at close range.
That shooting nearly killed me, as I spent two weeks of that month I spent in the hospital in the ICU, with their all but having to ever resuscitate me.
Ergo, I am thee most important shooting victim EVER and, umm, global warming is a reality!
Ps. If I were ever to get shot again, the slug would have to penetrate my NRA card first. : )
"Your emotions could get in the way of clear thinking if you're a victim. Too many people already have trouble telling the difference between thinking and emoting."
this brings up thoughts of my own experiences as a pacifist feeling Christian up through highschool. this may offer some insight as to why some on the left behave as they do. although some, especially sheehan, validate the thought that many anti war activists are thinly veiled communists.
before & through my time in highschool, i was stuck on a pacifist view of Scripture & my own feelings of horror at the thought of anyone harming another via war or the local police using deadly force. at that time, my brother who joined the Army & survived a tour in Nam, would be confronted by my views which he argued against insightfully, logically. while he was over there, i was painfully angry at his Army superiors for any imagined harm that might come to him. in short, my own fear & horror were partly to blame for my antiwar beliefs. the theological issues were then, & are now, debatable. ie there is a time for war & a time for peace. GOD decides the time. if possible, we are to be at peace with all men. with GOD all things are possible, but islamofascism keeps interfering. when saddam was paying families of suicide bombers for murdering Israelis, they were attacking His chosen people, those who are engraved upon his hands. i think the present conflict illustrates GOD's reaction to saddam's treachery.
in short, i eventually became a Reagan supporter & arch Conservative. now i can see a similarity between my past views & those who oppose our involvement in Iraq.
indeed, there is too much emoting going on. if sheehan & or the jersey girls ever have a conversation with Israelis,Iraqis, Kuwaitis, or Afghans, whose relatives were murdered by saddam, his baathist regime, homicidal palestinians he bribed, or al qaeda insurgents, they might finally get it. it really makes me wonder that if antiwar activists are evolutionists, what part of natural selection don't they get ? maybe they do. they just don't want America to survive [again, are they communists?]. apparently, political opportunism [communist or other] & a shortage of Biblical wisdom is the dark matter of the left. i think Ann has the right telescope to see through it for what it is.
"The only question of interest that remains is how Americans view the Jersey Four and company, and how long before they turn them off."
They look like Mafia wives
It's what they do. They use the dead for political purposes, just like they use the poor for political purposes. They use everyone.
Great article.
I have to admit that I don't think these women enjoyed their husbands dying but I do know and have thought for a long time that they do enjoy the publicity they're getting from it. It's disgusting how they use and have been used for political reasons.
I had no doubts about what Coulter was saying from the beginnning. I've felt the same way all along. My feelings are confirmed everytime I hear people like that wimpusamericanusapologeticus Alan Colmes weep for the terrorist who was killed rather than captured for information, and weep for the poor widdle joisey goils. I thought he was going to pi$$ his pants over all of it last night.
"Ann just has the guts to say what alot of us are thinking."
AND the best part is that she won't back down!!
Very insightful. Thanks.
But that is the bedrock of liberals... Facts do not matter only "feelings" and "idealism" do! In their fantasy world one can continue (indefinitely) to support and encourage "good government programs" because they were established for "the good of the people"! NEVERMIND THE FACT THAT THE PROGRAM(S) NEVER DELIVER THEIR INTENDED RESULTS AND BLOAT BEYOND RECOGNITION!!!
If I had any doubt, I watched Nick Berg's father, Michael Berg, blame George W. Bush for his son's death, and not Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, even though we all witnessed his brutal beheading at the hands of al-Zarqawi..
I'm tired of dems using my sense of decency as a weapon against me. I'm tired of their endless guilt trips. Next victim they find and put in the arena will be treated the same as any other spokesperson.
I suggest the response was quite predictable because the response was written not by the Jersey Girls, but by their Democrat handlers. The Jersey Girls gladly endorsed the response.
He has so many protective shields that it's hard to peel them all away.....and no one has the guts to take on the "king" of the Fox Network.
If anyone can do it, it'll be Ann.
Leni
My initial reaction was that her "enjoying their husbands' deaths" comment was over the top. I still think that if "enjoying" had been changed to "exploiting" then all of Ann's points would have still been made...
But maybe the tactic of the left wouldn't have received the airplay...
Ann has done this country a service by exposing this "hide behind the infallible victim" tactic of the Left. And they will have a harder time using this tactic in the future because Ann found a way to get this debate in the public eye.
I heard Ann on the radio yesterday, and she said basically, of course I'm not saying they "enjoyed" having their husbands die, I'm saying that they are enjoying what has happened since. I can live with that explanation...
My understanding, possibly wrong, is that during WWII we stayed away from the sacred and aesthetic precincts of Kyoto because their value was understood to transcend national conflict. I also understand that the Japanese did not try to store weapons in Kinkakuji, the exquisite Golden Pavilion. Had they done so, we would have had a duty to destroy it.
Similarly, if the Jersey girls and their running dogs use bereavement as a safe haven from which to strike out, then they themselves have torn down the protection decent people afford the grieving.
It's good to see Ann Coulter's shock-'em-with-the-truth method actually works when someone thinks a bit beyond their initial reaction.
The very political 'Jersey Girls' lost their right to be shielded from criticism when they ceased to be 'grieving' widows. They are no different than the charlatan Cindy Sheehan.
Ha! That's exactly the line that jumped out at me, too. Unless they've got film clips showing men identifiable as all their husbands "burning alive," then this is one more demonstration that they are viscerally dishonest, self-dramatizing people.
I'm sure the world is full of such people, but granting them "moral authority" is unwise, at best.
(p.s., Way to go, Ann! You couldn't pay for this kind of advertising!)
Regardless of how someone feels about losing a loved one, sincere grief does not go on to exploit the death for political reasons.
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