Friday, October 29, 2004
911 Families: "We have been silenced by the mainstream media for too long"
Tim Sumner, Sergeant First Class, US Army (retired), 9/11 family member, and webmaster and cofounder of 9/11 Families for Stronger and Safer America, writes to me:
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"After weeks of asking them to do so, the Bush/Cheney campaign finally posted our open letter on their website. They said that while they appreciated our grassroots support from day one, they would not use us for political purposes.Do yourself a favour, go and read it, and tell others to do the same.
"We replied, 'that is exactly why you should publish our open letter and signatures. You didn't ask us; we are asking you. You have not "used us" as MoveOn.org did in March 2004 when it held an antiwar rally down near Manhattan's Ground Zero where it hosted a press conference for a small group of 9/11 family members to berate President Bush and demand that he pull that campaign ad with its fleeting glimpse of rescue workers carrying a flag-draped coffin from the WTC. Those few 9/11 family members were not speaking for us yet the mainstream media portrayed it as if they were. That could have been our loved one being reverently carried from where terrorists murdered them. We wanted America to remember 9/11. We wanted America to remember our President has not waivered in going after the terrorists who attacked our nation.'
And we told the campaign, 'We blame terrorists for murdering our loved ones. On 9/14/01, the same day that George W. Bush stood in the smoking ruins of the Pile with rescue workers as they chanted USA, USA, USA and said "I can hear you and those that did this will hear from all of us," Michael Moore stood in London and said, "America brought 9/11 upon itself." We are not those few 9/11 family members who, from the beginning, misdirected their understandable anger and who let themselves be used or actively sought to be used by President Bush's political opposition and the blame-America-first-and-always crowd.'
"And lastly we told the campaign, 'Will the Bush/Cheney campaign, out of its sense of respect for us, inadvertently do what the mainstream media has done to us and refuse to give a public voice to our support for President Bush? Will November 2nd come and go without America knowing that 242 (now 248) 9/11 family members recognize and greatly appreciate President Bush's relentless pursuit of terrorists and those that harbored them? Before the election, will voters be kept from knowing that a large group of 9/11 family members--whom we believe represent a huge majority of 9/11 family members--believe President Bush was right to free Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power due to his history of supporting terrorism (including bin Laden and al Qaeda) and harboring terrorists such as Abu Abbas, Abu Nidal, and Abu Zarqawi?'
"Yesterday, the Bush/Cheney campaign relented and did what we asked them to do.
"We have been silenced by the mainstream media for too long. The Bush/Cheney campaign had to be (to its credit) dragged kicking and screaming into publishing our open letter to America and our signatures onto its website. We thank them for their respect. And we thank them for letting us stand with them now.
"So my friend, I ask you to please post this blog and this URL onto your website: http://www.georgewbush.com/911Families/
"God bless America, Australia, and all those who stand with the coalition of the willing."
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