President Bush: Don't use my husband as your mascot

[nomatrix]

A 9/11 widow's open letter to Bush about his new ad campaign.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/03/05/open_letter/index_np.html

"My husband, Luis Eduardo Torres, was at his second day of work at Cantor Fitzgerald when he was killed on Sept. 11. He jumped from the 105th floor of the North Tower. Most of his upper body was recovered, identifiable only through dental records. I was seven months pregnant at the time."

-snip-

"In effect, then, Mr. Bush, you've paraded all our 9/11 dead out as the official mascots of your reelection campaign. You use them to show our nation that you can protect us against what we should all fear the most -- being an anonymous corpse in another attack.
But these sleights of image and crafty juxtapositions are the only true demonstrations of your leadership abilities. After all, on that tragic day you didn't actually lead the nation: according to the work of the "Jersey girls" -- the four 9/11 widows who fought to have an independent commission investigate the tragedy -- your first reaction to the plane hitting the North Tower was to blame the pilot. And you continued your activities -- reading stories to a group of young schoolchildren. And as you try to impress our nation with your role during and after 9/11 in these ads, you refuse to talk meaningfully to the independent commission about the specifics of your role prior to 9/11 and how much you knew about a potential large-scale al-Qaida plot."

A Salon Exclusive. A goggle search of flag +draped +body+ widow+bush
and cache the article will bring it up in full.

[wryter2000]

1. That poor lady

I wonder how she knows he jumped. I'd have nightmares for the rest of my life.

[nostamj]

4. there was LOTS of film

and, based on what they found of him, the cause of death was probably quite quite obvious....

(there is nothing, to me, as horrifying as the images of the jumpers. to know that the insipid chimp didn't even interrupt his insipid photo op while it was happening is one of the greatest sources of my utter and absolute contempt.)

[nomatrix]

6. It was stated in the 1st paragraph

If you'd like to read the whole article, just a brief clip of Schindler's List gets you a day pass.

[Melsky]

2. Wow

That's pretty damning. Good article.

[nomatrix]

3. I posted this on another thread

it was suggested it needed a thread of it's own.

No one says it better.

[nomatrix]

5. She closes with

"I didn't think that co-opting 9/11 with such disregard for those of us who have been affected by this tragedy would anger me so much. I hope that John Kerry doesn't use 9/11 to strengthen his own candidacy . But so many 9/11 families are sick at your use of our sadness ... I can't imagine it being any worse than where you have already led us."

Your use of our sadness. Bless her heart.