http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1532959,00.htmlIn the five years since Kristin Breitweiser watched her husband die in the World Trade Center on television, the onetime New Jersey housewife has transformed herself into a vocal political activist. In Wake-Up Call: The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow, a new book out this week, Breitweiser, 35, recounts her work to establish the 9/11 Commission, taking on Henry Kissinger and being serenaded by Bruce Springsteen. She recently spoke to TIME's Kathleen Kingsbury on why the U.S. isn't safer five years after September 11, 2001, what we should do about it and why Ann Coulter isn't helping.
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TIME: In her own book Godless released in June, conservative commentator Ann Coulter calls you and your fellow Jersey Girls various names — "harpies," "witches" — saying some "9/11 victims turned themselves into the arbiters of what anyone could say about 9/11."
KB: I don't believe in name-calling and hysterics. This country is in a place right now where we need respectful educated debate versus screaming, ranting and raving. That's not fruitful. Tell me why the airline system shouldn't be secure. Tell me why port security shouldn't be better. Tell me why border security shouldn't be our first priority. Tell me why I shouldn't care that the FBI still has an inoperable computer system. If Ms. Coulter can give me an argument to dissuade me those things aren't of paramount importance, I'll listen.
TIME: Coulter went on to lambaste you for attracting media attention and "reveling in
status as celebrities."
KB: Regardless of who you are — whether you're a 9/11 family member, an Iraqi war veteran, whether you lost a child in a hot tub drain, whether your child was abducted — if you're an American citizen, you have every right to open your mouth and partake in democracy. I have every right to voice my opinion.