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).
Thank you for the Davy Crockett link!!!
How poignant and appropriate!
Good description!
And just as tacky...
This, and your mention of hiding weapons in temples, brings to mind the terrorists who holed-up (with hostages) in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Because they have "objectified" their husbands.
Great article. Thanks for posting it.
Some formerly gullible Americans might now "see through" the words of Breitweiser, et al.
Since they have shunted aside their feeling in order to treat their husbands like goods-to-be-sold, they can no longer make the claim that their feelings are of utmost importance.
They can't have it both ways.
I think it's of a piece with the endless demands for compensation: "Something bad happened to somebody else -- so give me money!"
Good point.
Too good to pass up...
Anyone who falls for Coulter's rehtoric and actually believes she is representing the conservative mindset is a fool. I'd exect such inane stupidity from the liberal left, not our base. Certainly not my base of critical thinkers.
You fools! She's the reason why our administration has such a hard time getting things done. She's making money off of the very thing she's accusing the women who lost their husbands in the 9/11 attacks. It's like she's feeding off of this war like a parasite.
She is not a christian or a conservative or an American for that matter. She's a money grubbing wanna-be Rush Limbaugh, except she'd stoop as low as Satan to achieve the status Rush has achieved through actually making constructive points.
Most of you side with Coulter because A) You think she's hot or B) She's a woman and thus she's 'speaking out!'.
Please. You've gotta be kidding me. Look at her for what she is. Let our soldiers and our true leaders and figureheads shine on for America and for VICTORY. VICTORY. Not this retarded woman trying to cause a civil war within our own country for her own personal gain.
America's Victory Overseas is What Matters People! Stay Focused!
Cat-like typing detected.
"Not this retarded woman trying to cause a civil war within our own country for her own personal gain."
Only a retard would have posted that.
Coulter cuts through the cr*p to some pretty dang good insights.
She isn't perfect, but at least her mind is in gear.
How would you know about her Christianity? Remember there are many "preachers" saying homo's should marry, adultery and lying are OK, abortion is nothing to get excited about, and war is always a sin, Joshua not withstanding. She sounds pretty "Right On" to me, and I've been through the Bible a few times. Just because she confronts people with their hypocrisy, doesn't make her mean or wrong. Jesus did that, and it got Him killed. She is just dismembering the liberal mindset that has been drilled into us for 40 years. 30 years ago, abortion was unthinkable, but now, it's necessary to cure ailments of movie stars. If I take up for the "fetus", then I am cruel for advocating the movie star is no more important than a "blob of tissue". The movie star is sitting on a stage with a microphone while the baby is in the blender. Homosexuals used to be in the closet, but now even God is guilty of "hate speech".
These women gave up their right of martyrdom when they took on the celebrity they sought. If they don't want to be examined, they should keep their mouths shut, stay home and vote any way they see fit. If they can't, then what they say is fair game and is subject to be examined. Hillary tried to make this a womens issue and Anne, rightfully, put her in her place. Hillery can be challenged on what she says and does. Bill has left a trail of broken women behind him and what has Hillery done about it,.... nada!
I'll take Anne as my champion any day.
Them's fightin' words.
Bump your post--I've sure enjoyed the Jersey Ghouls kerfuffle. Looks like Ann scored, and every time the Fab Four try to make hay in the future, the "gold-digger" specter will be grinning from the background.
Kudos, Ann. You sure ain't no girly man.
As much as I agree with Ann that the victimhood has been used shamelessly for politics by the Jersey girls, Cindy Sheehan, and Berg I think Ann went too far in saying, perhaps their husbands were going to divorce them. Criticism of their politicking is well deserved. Personal attacks of that sort only give talking points to the left.
I disagree.
One of my coworkers took me to task for my not making the same arbitrary distinction you've made regarding Bill Clinton's personal life.
I was completely vindicated when that same coworker later complained bitterly about how Clinton "lied to the American people." I reminded him I warned him any man that would lie to the person they sleep with every night wouldn't think twice about lying to strangers
Speculation such as Coulter has put forward is simple extrapolation.
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