Letter to Ann Coulter's mother

I hate to bring up ANOTHER Ann Coulter topic (we should all just hope she goes away!), but this letter that was in her mother's local newspaper (from the newspaper's editor) was too poignant not to pass on.

http://www.connpost.com/search//ci_3924863

Dear Mrs. Coulter,

Congratulations on your daughter's success. I'm sure you are proud of Ann's
latest work, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism." It's already the top
seller on Amazon.com and is obviously provocative, given the hundreds of
reviews that are flowing in.

I haven't read it yet, so I wouldn't dream of commenting on the actual
book. But, there is one thing that really disturbs me and that's her
diatribe against four New Jersey women whom she dubs "The Witches of East
Brunswick" whose husbands died in the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Here's the money quote that has even made Tucker Carlson and Bill O'Reilly
squeamish:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them,
reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've
never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much."

The widows — Kristen Breitweiser, Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg and
Patty Casazza — came to Capitol Hill often in the wake of the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks. They came seeking answers to how al-Qaida was able to hijack
four commercial jets and topple the World Trade Center towers where their
husbands worked.

They acted out of grief, just as others have.

Candy Lightner of California founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving and
lobbied for stiffer DWI penalties after a drunk driver killed her daughter
in 1980.

Maureen and Richard Kanka of New Jersey, pushed for a sex offender registry
after a child molester abducted and killed their daughter, Megan, in 1994.
Now we have Megan's Law.

And John Walsh of Florida lobbied Congress for a missing children's bill
after his son was abducted and murdered in 1981. Walsh now hosts "America's
Most Wanted" on Fox Television, which profiles unsolved crimes.

Through my work, I met the New Jersey widows — and other 9-11 family
victims — often over the last five years because Sen. Joe Lieberman,
D-Conn., and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, took up their cause.

Shays, in particular, has continued to fight for additional reforms that
the 9-11 Commission recommended. He is driven largely by the memory of 87
constituents who died in the attacks. Those 87 individuals were your
neighbors, too.

Anyway, the widows came to Washington and pushed for an independent
commission and then lobbied for the commission's recommendations to be
implemented. They never sought celebrity and I never saw them enjoying the
deaths of those they held dearest.

Ann is quite the partisan, so I assume what offends your daughter most was
that they endorsed Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for president in 2004.

From what I could see, they were not all Democrats to start but were driven
to Kerry's camp largely out of frustration. They did not believe President
Bush and House Republican leaders would actually act on the 9-11 Commission
report.

Ironically, the day your daughter's book was released the former 9-11
Commission leaders — Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton — appeared before Shays'
subcommittee to talk about what has happened in the last two years since
their report was released.

Here's how Kean summed it up: "We are still not safe — a little safer, but
still not safe."

A neighbor of yours was also at the hearing to urge Congress to adopt the
rest of the 9-11 Commission reforms.

Like the "Jersey Girls," Mary Fetchet has been there from the beginning.
Her 24-year-old son, Bradley, died in the second tower.

Mary is a remarkable woman. She used to work at Bridges in Milford as a
social worker but quit after Sept. 11, 2001 and founded Voices of September
11 to provide advocacy and support to all those impacted by the terrorist
attack. They are still at work out of an office in New Canaan.

Unlike the "Jersey Girls," Mary has remained non-partisan and continues to
travel to Washington to lobby for a safer America. She doesn't do it for
fame or money. She does it in memory of her son and the hope that no other
mother should suffer a similar fate.

Mary lives over on Sunset Hill Road. It's maybe a six-minute drive from
your place. You really should encourage your daughter to meet her. The
experience might thaw her frozen heart.

Sincerely,

Peter Urban

Connecticut Post

 

The conservatives on this forum frequently make disparaging remarks about Michael Moore. I wonder how many of them have read any of HIS books, or seen any of his films. I am not defending Michael Moore, I am just offering a comparison.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jun 12 2006, 10:07 AM) [snapback]269891[/snapback]</div>

Read Mr. Urban's editorial again. He is not critiquing Ann Coulter's book; he makes it quite clear that he has not read it and thus cannot offer criticism of it. His opinion is based upon quite public statements made by Ann Coulter. In particular, she has been all over the media with her attacks on the four 9-11 widows who are popularly referred to as the "Jersey Girls"; Coulter refers to them as "The Witches of East Brunswick."

These are direct quotes from Coulter's book:

The four widows were not satisified that the government had done everything possible to protect the U.S. from terrorist attack, given the evidence that there were warning signals that were disregarded, and they wanted answers> as a result, the 9-11 Commission convened (which was critical of both the Bush and Clinton administrations.) They were not seeking publicity or fortune; they wanted resolution. Had I lost a loved one on 9-11, I am sure that I would have felt the same.

Although I have not read her book, and I will not, I have heard her statements on this issue ad nauseum. I heard her interview with Matt Lauer on June 6 (I know that it was June 6 because I was thinking about the 6/6/06 thing) and, despite my initial inclination, I listened to it in its entirety.

Former Rep. Tim Roemer, a conservative Democrat who was a member of the 9-11 commission, called Coulter's "hate-filled attack on the patriotic heroes of 9/12 — the widows of 9/11 — reprehensible and undignified." and urged people not to buy her book. "Americans shouldn't contribute to her profiting from these vicious remarks."

One of the widows, Lorie Van Auken, said "Having my husband burn alive in a building brought me no joy. Watching it unfold on national TV and seeing it repeated endlessly was beyond what I could describe. Telling my children they would never see their father again was not fun. And we had no plans to divorce."

Now if you disagree with the allegations that the government shares in the blame for 9-11 for unpreparedness and for not taking the threat of terrorism more seriously, that is something that we can rationally discuss. Ann Coulter is nothing but a sensationalist, and she will say anything to get on the news and sell books. I happen to think that she has gone far over the line of decency, and I would have to ask her ardent defenders- would you say to a woman whose husband was recently killed in a terrorist attack- "now that your shelf life is dwindling, you'd better hurry up and appear in Playboy." I know that you wouldn't David, but there are a few people here who have said worse things.