Don't slam me yet!

While I agree that her actions were sad and deplorable, a few things also struck me:

As a New Yorker, and a "survivor of 9/11" (what does that even mean? I live here, I was downtown that day, I got covered in soot and ran from flaming debris, my life changed too), I find the attitudes of many of those that actually lost family members in the towers to be similarly attention-seeking. I often wondered why they were so coddled and given special treatment, and were even treated like celebrities. They were consulted in the designs for the memorial, and even the redesign of the World Trade building, which, partially because of that, made the construction delayed for so long that the damn thing isn't even finished yet, 12 years later. I find this shameful.

Look, I am not without empathy, but a lot of those same people screamed for Iraqi blood right after, as if having a similar tragedy befall fathers and teenage girls in Iraq would somehow vindicate them or just make them feel better. The blonde woman seemed rather proud of her status as a "survivor", she even brags about it to that cop at the end.

This woman actually helped and encouraged many of these people, whether her story was true or not. They valued her so much they made her the chairman of the whole group! Yeah, no one likes to be lied to, but except for her getting that guy booted out of the group, I can't really see how she hurt anyone.

The exalted status of the "9/11 families" was partially what drove this sad, sick woman to gravitate to them. This is by no means condoning her actions, but watching the film brought all this back for me, and reminded me why these people pissed me off back then.

"A sword is useless in the hands of a coward" - Nichiren Daishonin

[deleted]

<< I think was she did was horrible, but I feel sorry for her as well. >>

Well, she is obviously mentally ill in some way. It's frustrating dealing with such people, whether they're a crazy person rambling and yelling in the street or a relative...and yet at the same time they deserve a measure of pity, as well.

Still, she's a sicko.

(And, she's such a narcissist, she's probably reading everything that's posted here...which is, rock bottom, creepy.)
.

That was an incredibly compassionate post. :)

jbarkeley^

SO Agree.

Evil comes in many forms. And, it doesn't always have to be in the form of a snarling, drooling obvious-is-obvious wolf.

Oh! She had a bad car crash!

I have had a few rather severe, life-altering occurrences in my life, and I would never think to do something like this. To even TRY would make me sick to my stomach.

But, then again, I wasn't brought up wealthy with my own purebred Arabian horse LOL

Oh! She had some family members in trouble with the law.

Well, sounds like this apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Oh! She was overweight and always felt bad about this.

NO excuse here.

Oh! She always wanted to be important and wanted to work in New York.

1) Narcissism 2) I've always wanted to live in Scotland, but that would not give me any excuse or right to lie or to commit fraud to do so. Instead, I should work hard and find a way to live there and to stay there. Gee! There's a thought!

Oh! She is obviously mentally ill!

How so? Maybe personality disordered, but that doesn't necessarily translate to genuine mental illness, such as where folks are hearing voices and having delusions totally out of their control.

There was much consciousness of guilt on her part, thus all the avoiding of talking to the press, so her behavior was NOT out of her control.

And, it does a great disservice to folks who are personality disordered and who would never stoop to these behaviors.

And, what is the proof of this so-called mental illness? She did 'X', so she was mentally ill. How do we know she is mentally ill? Because she did 'X'. That is a circular explanation, which means no explanation at all.

I feel sorry for the people she hoodwinked.
I feel sorry for the folks who were good-hearted and thus were easy marks for being taken advantage of by someone like her.
I feel sorry for people she intentionally displaced, just so she could have some 'attention' and power.
I feel sorry for all the true survivors.
I feel sorry for the actual woman survivor who trusted her and whom she told must listen to taped recordings over and over again of the made-up horrific stories, in order to 'survive' like Tanya did with 'so much grace and resiliency', only to have the true recollections of the experiences the true survivor suffered, triggered for months afterwards.

Some people want to say 'well, she did *some* good by all her advocacy and 'work' for the survivor's network, even despite being a faker.

Pfft!

Who's to say that this awareness might not have happened as a natural course of events, given the work of the true survivors, minus any involvement by her? And, how much ‘good’ that was supposedly accomplished has now been ‘subtracted’ due to the realization of who she really is?

Who's to say that MORE and BETTER wouldn't have been done, had true survivors been the focus and not her, and had been allowed to do what they needed to do, as true survivors?


She felt outcast and needed attention? Well, so did Charlie Manson. Case closed.

And, what about the other HARMs, such as loss of trust and good faith in people by some, and other folks being wary of being involved in true good causes because of being duped/fear of being duped by someone like this, and what about other TH's of the world seeing all the reinforcement she got for what she did and trying to emulate her for their own gain, even if temporarily?

What about the memory of 'Dave' and his family? She had NO right to vampire suck off of it and their tragic loss, for her own Harlequin Romance type story, and to add to her fake street-cred of being a 'survivor'. Indefensible and is a perverted form of grave-robbing, IMHO.

All the lies she told to tour groups about 9/11. She is quoting as saying at the beginning of each tour "I was there at the towers. I'm a survivor. I'm going to tell you about that." !!!!!!

Some folks say 'well, she didn't apply for survivor benefits, so she wasn't trying to benefit from her charade financially'.

C'mon.

1) She very well may not have because with the information she would be forced to provide, she could have been outed sooner.

2) There are many other 'benefits' she received (attention; power; meeting powerful folks; an entire network of admiring friends), and from all these 'other' benefits, certainly good connections were made that very well could have benefited her financially, had she not been called out on her ruse.

Folks need to come back to earth and reality and remember to recognize TRUE heroes and TRUE victims, and to give to them the attention, accolades, and benefits they deserve.

To do otherwise for fakers is to take away from folks who truly deserve it, and I wouldn't want to give one more dime to or one more second of sympathy on a faker, because that would be taking one more dime and one more second of sympathy away for those who truly deserve it and who should NEVER be called upon to sacrifice one inch of it, for a TH or for misguided well-wishers of someone like her.

My question is: Why isn't this woman in jail, or at the least, deported?







"I'm here because I believe in a free Narnia."

Oh great, give her some more stories to hoodwink people, maybe she'll join a sexual abuse survivors group and of course, have the most horrifying story to tell, ugh.

She's not mentally ill, just an attention seeker and power hungry. She's ugly, inside and out!

foxystoat^

"What makes a child start to lie in the first place? It made me wonder if she didn't suffer some kind of sexual abuse as a child."

Most children lie when very young.

It's then up to parents/caretakers to shape this behavior out of them and not to reinforce it.

The more a behavior is reinforced, the stronger it becomes.

Lying can have many benefits: Financial, social, and escaping responsibility/punishment, just to name a few.

Sexual abuse does not have to occur for a person to be shaped up to be a frequent liar.

Lying is just one form of behavior -- a skill.

The more a behavior/skill is practiced, the stronger it becomes.

Teaching a child that lying 'pays' and does not get consistently consequated can result in a very practiced liar.



"I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book." ~ Bradbury

Ik a guy that has that disorder. He's so *beep* ridiculous lol. Over the top fake stories, dramatic and narcissistic. He would make up a story if he lived in ny during 9/11.