9/11 Family Invited To Presidential Ground Zero Visit Snubs Obama
As 50 carefully selected families prepare to join President Barack Obama for a ceremony at the World Trade Center site Thursday, one of the invited 9/11 families have decided to pass on the Commander-in-chief’s visit.
Although many consider it to be a once in a lifetime invitation, the Vigiano family of Deer Park, Long Island have respectfully declined.
“If this form letter was the invitation, it was kinda lame,” John Vigiano told PIX 11 News when describing the email invitation sent to him from the White House.
Jan and John Vigiano received the email invite Tuesday and admitted that they nearly deleted it, thinking it was spam. The private invitation complete with the White House seal informed the couple about President Obama’s visit to the World Trade Center site just days after news broke about Osama bin Laden’s death.
What rubbed the Vigiano’s the wrong way was not what the email said, but how it was addressed.
“It says ‘Dear 9-11 family member,’ - no names” “ John Vigiano said, reading the invite aloud to PIX 11 cameras. “I don’t know if its disrespectful, but it doesn’t work for me.”
The Vigianos lost both their sons on September 11, 2001. John Vigiano Jr. was 36, and a FDNY firefighter, while their youngest Joe Vigiano was an emergency services detective with the NYPD.
“There is no closure,” a sobbing John Vigiano said. “There is none.”
The Vigiano family is just one of fifty families sent the exclusive invitation to meet the President at what is being billed as a historic visit to Ground Zero Thursday. With all that considered, the mourning father says he’s not going.
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http://www.wpix.com/wpix-family-unhappy-about-obama-visit,0,3547351.story
Just reading about the Viggiano’s and I’m crying tears that I thought were long ago used up.
For sure the pain for these families will never ease.
Sending a blanket email invitation says a lot about the low-class aspect of the current administration
Sheesh. They were too lazy to type up a hard copy, address it to the individual families and overnight mail it to them?
“exclusive” email invite? wow. I am underwhelmed
I feel so sad for this family! May God watch over them. They are right - there is no closure.