My 9/11 dinner with Bush and Rumsfeld

[mike r]

http://www.salon.com/life/life_stories/?story=/mwt/feature/2010/09/11/911_dinner_with_rumsfeld

My 9/11 dinner with Bush and Rumsfeld
Two years after losing my husband in the towers, I went to the White House -- and showed them how I really felt
By Marian Fontana

"Get a sitter for Aidan, we're going to the White House tomorrow," Lee says as if I have won a prize. I squeeze the phone against my ear so I can pinch a dead dahlia off of its stem. It crumbles in my hand.

"No, Lee, but thanks for asking." It is two days before the second anniversary of 9/11, and I can feel the anxiety mounting, my heart sliding back and forth, like skiers waiting for the race to start.

"President Bush is honoring Vig, and he wants us to come down," Lee says. I have been working with Lee for almost two years since I started an organization for the 9/11 families after my husband, Dave, died trying to save others in the towers.

"He wants you to come down," I say. "I can't."

"Why not?" he asks.

"For one thing, I'm a Democrat."

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. An 8 year dinner for everyone, unfortunately.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Wow

Great piece.

[Angry Dragon]

3. A very moving article .......... written from the soul

[hlthe2b]

4. Very moving....

[barbtries]

5. great read

extremely touching.