e-Claire

Presuppostitons

What is the presupposition here?

Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York? In the public pronouncements of the Jersey Girls we find, indeed, hardly a jot of accusatory rage at the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. We have, on the other hand, more than a few declarations like that of Ms. Breitweiser, announcing that "President Bush and his workers . . . were the individuals that failed my husband and the 3,000 people that day."

The presupposition is that we, as American citizens, do not live in the same "real world" as the rest of the population of Earth. We, as American citizens, shouldn't have to deal with the unpleasantness of sudden and random death and irrational hate. Further, the presupposition goes, it is the primary job of government, specifically of the President, to protect us from any and all forces in said "real world" which would not only do us harm but influence us in any way whatsoever. Those distasteful foreign problems aren't our concern, after all. We're Americans. It is this, not freedom nor economic wealth, that is the special advantage of Americans. That we are above the push and pull of nasty world events because our government is there to protect us from it all -- just like a Jersey don protects his princess daughters. This is just my impression of what I read from the Jersey Girls -- 9-11 wives club. Feel free to show me where I am wrong. ThanQ!Little Miss Attila -- UPDATE: After reading an article by Gail Sheehey about the "9-11 Moms," I have a little more data. Sheehey is supportive of the four Moms and solidly behind the idea that there is a executive branch failure and conspiracy to blame. There are a couple of telling statements in her article about the emotional state of these widows and their ability to grasp what has happened. People in grief and shock will do almost anything to get back their equilibrium -- anyone who has lost a loved one knows the feeling. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross described the five phases of the grief process: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. These are not steps that one goes through one after another, rather parts of the process which can occur at any time and do occur in many ways. [see article for more] It seems as though the widows are stuck in Bargaining and Anger.

... a wish that might have been in the minds of all four moms: "O.K., we did the rally, now can our husbands come home?"

The rally, the hearings, the meetings, the research . . . We have done very hard work, now, please God, can this have never happened?? Bargaining. The Anger is directed not at those who committed the murders nor those who support them -- but at those who "should have protected us." Even if there was no rational way to have predicted the hijackings or what happened afterward, they "should have known, should have protected us." And because that was impossible, "There’s no way this could be. Somebody is not telling us the whole story." Anger.

...For months thereafter [9-11], finding it impossible to sleep, Kristen went back to the nightly ritual of her married life: She took out her husband’s toothbrush and slowly, lovingly squeezed the toothpaste onto it. Then she would sit down on the toilet and wait for him to come home.

That'll break your heart. The immense, depth of pain that is apparent in that action is so overwhelming that anyone listening would want to do almost anything to make it go away -- to help this poor woman. And this is where the disproportionate power of the victim originates. What feeds it is the niggling guilt that "maybe we could have done more" to prevent such pain. "Maybe they could have done more." Such guilt need not be founded in anything resembling fact or reason to arise. It is a feeling -- a wish that this terrible thing could be erased and made to never have happened. As though, if we could only figure out what we could have done to prevent it, it would be almost the same as having taken that preventative step. A wish to turn back time and take a different road. Entirely understandable. Who wouldn't turn back that time, if she could? The attack was so huge, so unanticipated, so outside the realm of what we thought possible that "it can't be." Denial. "Is there no one there who can protect me?" My God? My President? My parent? Depression. The one phase not yet heard in significant measure is Acceptance, and sometimes it just takes time. And the awareness not to get stuck, or help others stay stuck, in the other phases.

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