Did you See Oprah Today?

[Heracles 417]

I was watching Oprah today about the 911 widow (Kathy) who has squandered over 4.5 Million on shopping sprees. I guess my first question is why did the 3,000 911 murder victims' families deserve to receive over 4 million dollars each? This amount of money seems excessive considering the annual average 20,600 other murder victims we have in the USA that many never receive a dime of compensation, and those that do--do not receive anything approaching millions.

Exactly..

What is so funny is how so many people made Ann Coulter out to be crazy because of her opinion. Well surprise surprise. I wonder what the same people have to say about this..

[Joel Halfwassen 0]

Well...she is crazy. Just right about this issue.

Joel

[sarah and hicham 3]

So what was her side of the story? She just really needed all of those purses and shoes to make herself feel better?

[Marilyn. 340]

umm, she lost her husband and I am sure she was really depressed....

don't some of us women sometimes shop when we are depressed or feeling down to try and make ourselves feel better??

[Artegal 1]

Right Kathy and her children are depressed--but they are the only family to lose a parent in this country. What they should have done with all that money was setup a grief counseling network. A huge lottery-like windfall of 4.5 million dollars (4.2 million of which was given by congress, and .3 million by donations) does not solve the problems that someone has when they have a loss in the family.

But in this society we think if we just dump money on a problem then the bad things will go away or solve themselves. You can see this in other government programs where a huge amount of money is just thrown at disasters, programs, countries, or on segments of society, and nothing ever changes or gets any better.

Had this money been setup to provide for mental health etc.--then maybe Kathy and her family would have been able to move on--here nearly 5 years later and she is still devastated--and spending the easy money--that solved nothing.

[I'm Gone 60]

A huge lottery-like windfall of 4.5 million dollars (4.2 million of which was given by congress, and .3 million by donations) does not solve the problems that someone has when they have a loss in the family.

I guess I should have known that my tax dollars contributed to her stupidity. Now I'm depressed. LOL

Edited July 22, 2006 by mdyoung

[Welshcookie 17]

umm, she lost her husband and I am sure she was really depressed....

don't some of us women sometimes shop when we are depressed or feeling down to try and make ourselves feel better??

Ha!.....when my brother died I got a ton of caash....I went thro it in a year....every time I looked at it it depressed the hell out of me. Now 6 years down the line, of course I kick myself and think what better use I could have made of it. But at the time it was like I couldn't get rid of it quick enough

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I was watching Oprah today about the 911 widow (Kathy) who has squandered over 4.5 Million on shopping sprees. I guess my first question is why did the 3,000 911 murder victims' families deserve to receive over 4 million dollars each? This amount of money seems excessive considering the annual average 20,600 other murder victims we have in the USA that many never receive a dime of compensation, and those that do--do not receive anything approaching millions.

Oprah Show

Her husband died on 9/11…why this New York widow is making headlines. Her shopping addiction, the multi-million dollar controversy—she's here to tell her side.

Another 911 Widow's plight

[babybunny 2]

Will 4.5 million cover the living expenses for a wife, kids all expenses paid and a manhattan flat?

it may seem excessive to us.. but living in NYC is expensive.

$4.5MM @ a measely 5% return gets you $225K a year ($18.75K/month) w/o ever even touching the damn principal - meaning you keep the $4.5MM forever just living off the interest. That lets one live comfortably even in NYC.

There's just no excuse for this kind of #######. Charity is better spent on people who really need it.

thats true.. my ex is a millionaire and we lived off the money from the interests.

we got like 2 checks each month.

[Marilyn. 340]

umm, she lost her husband and I am sure she was really depressed....

don't some of us women sometimes shop when we are depressed or feeling down to try and make ourselves feel better??

Ha!.....when my brother died I got a ton of caash....I went thro it in a year....every time I looked at it it depressed the hell out of me. Now 6 years down the line, of course I kick myself and think what better use I could have made of it. But at the time it was like I couldn't get rid of it quick enough

maybe that was what this lady was going through too....

_________________________________________________________________________

i don't think we should judge this lady, we have no idea what she was feeling or what it would be like to be in her shoes

[Laura_and_IanM 0]

I was watching Oprah today about the 911 widow (Kathy) who has squandered over 4.5 Million on shopping sprees. I guess my first question is why did the 3,000 911 murder victims' families deserve to receive over 4 million dollars each? This amount of money seems excessive considering the annual average 20,600 other murder victims we have in the USA that many never receive a dime of compensation, and those that do--do not receive anything approaching millions.

Oprah Show

Her husband died on 9/11…why this New York widow is making headlines. Her shopping addiction, the multi-million dollar controversy—she's here to tell her side.

Another 911 Widow's plight

I can't believe that! How can our country, allow ppl to have visa's without even saying where they are staying, who is supporting them (without showing proof), and leaving some of the application blank??? I tell you what, after watching that clip..it makes me happy to know that we are all going through this. I know most of you probably won't agree, but in my eyes, at least it means that our government is now taking better care in handing out visas. How many of you have had REF's because of questions not answered right or not answered at all? Or at least have heard of someone who has? I am crying now after watching that. Who knew that even after all this time 911 would still have such a profound effect??? I lost a great friend that day and all I can say is...fire away..if the government wants to put up more red tape for all immigrants..then by all means do it. It adds just a bit more security in my eyes.

LJ

[gimygirl 0]

Another 911 Widow's plight

i guess you can add mindy kleinberg and donna marsh o'connor to the ever growing list of 'conspiracy theorists'. maybe it will mean more now since they lost a husband and a daughter, respectively. even after the investigaton the US only has an official 'theory' as to 9/11 ... regardless of what people want to believe, our government was complacent in allowing these attacks to happen on the most heavily guarded air space on the planet.

[Fandango 1,439]

You know, it's awful what happened with 9/11 and all those families...I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must feel like for them. THAT BEING SAID.....yanno, someone gets killed by a drunk driver on 9/12 isn't any less hard on the family. Yes, it's a tragedy and awful and all that, but I do think people went OTT with the $$$ as if it can make it better that he's gone.

Now THAT being said....I lost my beloved grandmother. Actually, today is 8 years...rest in peace, Nanny. Now yeah you can say 'oh but she's a grandma she must have been old' or something, but the fact is she wasn't....and she was like a mother to me. She was the world to me and my mother...and the three of us were immensely close. I grieve for her every day that I am alive, and her abscense has left a huge gaping hole in my heart that will never heal. She was taken prematurely, and died due to a 'new drug' that was supposedly safe & wonderful, yet killed thousands & is now off the mkt. The reason why I'm telling you all this is that when she died...my mother and I had no way to deal with the amount of grief we had...and there was a period of time where we took our grief out on shopping. Yes it was a ridiculous thing to do...but you have this fkin hole where your heart should be, and you feel sooo fkin empty inside that you look for a 'quick fix' to make yourself feel better. No, it didn't work...and my mother and I wound up with so much chit that we said 'why the hell did we buy this?' I think for a brief pd of time, we were compulsive. I can understand this widow to a certain extent. Blowing all that money? I can't really understand that (no, we didnt' sue the drug ppl), but the brain does messed up things when you're grieving a loss....

[gimygirl 0]

i completely agree, lisa ... everyone grieves in their own individual way. some never get over a loss, some get over it and others merely deal with the loss and work it into their daily life.

unfortunately for the survivors and the families of the victims of 9/11, the grief process is far from over until all the pieces are acknowledged.

[Laura_and_IanM 0]

I agree Lisa! When a person is grieving, it is amazing at the depths one will go to just to try and "cope". I lost my grandfather back in 2002 and to this day I still believe I could have prevented it. Anyone that loses someone, no matter what the circumstances, it is still a loss. Some ppl resort to eating, some resort to alcohol and or drugs, others resort to shopping.. Whatever it is, at the time it seems to be a quick fiz mechanism. Do we agree with it? Most ppl do disagree and often those ppl who do disagree haven't been there before. This is just my humble opinion

LJ