On 10/16/12, outside of the student center at Hofstra University where my youngest son goes to study, CNN showcased Rep. Peter King who, in true Peter King fashion (he only shows up to spew hate), used the events in Libya on 9/11/2012 to rally the American people to, once again, be outraged. (He is usually on the wrong side of compassion.) All day today, CNN covered the Benghazi attacks as if they had happened yesterday. The calls from Republican leaders: investigate! I know that word well. We are intimate.
Believe me, the Obama administration will investigate. Hillary Clinton will. Why? Because they have the motivation to do so.
On 9/11/2001, I was in Canada on what was supposed to be one of the most joyous periods in my life -- my husband's novel was made into a film and we were on our way to the Q&A at the Elgin Theater in Toronto so he could answer questions. The haze that followed: The attack on my homeland, the falling of the World Trade Center, the plane hitting the Pentagon, my daughter, only 29-years-old and pregnant with her first and never child, her never child (think about that!), my son James only 14-years-old crying into the phone, "Mommy, Vanessa..." -- these are details I try so hard not to remember. Her birthday is Halloween. This is the time of year when, no matter what, I cannot ever forget what was taken from me.
For many years I asked for an investigation into the events leading up to that day. I asked and asked and finally, exhausted, stopped asking. What good would it do for my sons to see me live the rest of my life in futility? They are amazing men. My oldest son is a paramedic. I know that if I had to see a paramedic on a tragic day in my own life, I would be blessed to have it be one so compassionate as his. My youngest son is at Hofstra University, studying political science and getting taken up in just causes. I love them so much. But I do not have the ability to give them what they need the most -- a whole family, one that includes their sister and her family.
I don't want to rehash the old days, the days of obsessing over why the American people gave up their voices after this great tragic event, why they don't care about my loss and about my family. I don't want to ask anymore why we allowed for a 9/11 commission that was never even charged with answering any of the most essential questions of that morning, a commission that was never charged with finding culpability, a commission that was never given subpoena power, a commission that has been questioned by at least four of the 9/11 commissioners, a commission that was set up to say, "Shut up, you had your investigation." I do not want to ask what the Saudi financial connection to this event was. And who had the most to gain politically from the death of my daughter and the 2,795 others.
So I will not ask it.
But I will say this, Mitt Romney, don't go there! Don't you dare.
Because once again, the question of who has the most to gain gets raised. You have been asked by the parents of Christopher Stevens not to use his death for political gain. Rep. King ought to abide by that warning as well. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC -- stay away from Benghazi during the next three weeks. Because what is now at stake is the future and voice of the American middle class and each and every one of the citizens below middle class. And you in the media know that all too well.
If you continue down this path, the questions of 9/11/2001, those questions that hang in our collective and toxic air re-emerge. Through your lips.