This week our nation mourned the loss of a true hero, Coretta Scott King. Like 9/11 Family Members, she suffered the loss of a loved one through a senseless act of violence. But her ability to transform grief into hope serves as an inspiration to us all. She will be greatly missed, though I am confident her legacy will endure for generations to come. Please click here for a moving tribute to Ms. King.

Valentine's Day is a time to cherish the many relationships of both friends and family. This special day can also remind us of loved ones we have lost, and in this week's e-Newsletter, Dr. Robin Goodman explores ways to cope during this emotional time. All of us at VOICES wish you a happy Valentine's Day and thank you for the gift of your friendship.

How precious are the ties of love and caring
that weave our separate lives so close together...
How wonderful each moment touched by friends and family ...
for every one brings joy that lasts forever.
- Amanda Bradley

As always, feel free to contact us by phone at (866) 505-3911 or by email if we can be of any assistance to you or your family.

Warm Regards,

VOICES is expanding its mental health program and seeking a full-time, master's level trained professional to add to the staff. We are currently in the process of interviewing applicants but are still accepting applications. If you or someone you know is interested, please click here for further information.

Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, births – these are just some of many occasions when loved ones are ever present in our thoughts. The pain and heartache felt after the death of someone dear can be particularly unbearable at those times. For the bereaved, the pain is often felt both emotionally and physically especially in the early days after a death, but can stretch on for months and even years. Saying “there is a hole in my heart”, “I feel like I had the wind knocked out of me”, “my heart aches”; vividly describe how it feels inside and out. The longing and missing of a loved one who has died – brother, father, sister, friend, mother, grandchild, fiancé, co-worker – can last a lifetime. It is a testament to the special bond shared with another.

As time passes, it can be necessary as well as helpful to adjust to life without the person. This can mean finding a way to emotionally relocate the loved one who died while keeping an inner sense of him or her. It can be immensely difficult to change from having a special, intimate relationship with someone in the present, to relating to someone in one’s mind and memory. Carrying forth positive memories from a relationship in the past can be sustaining and comforting even though it does not provide the same sustenance and comfort as if the person were alive.

There can come a point when it is time to invest in new relationships. This can and should happen while the internal flame of the loved one who has died continues to provide warmth. But this step is not always easy. The following are some thoughts about the processes of keeping past love alive and finding new love. These thoughts apply to those developing and deepening various kinds of relationships and needing to love life again...READ MORE

The long campaign for respectful burial of unidentified remains at Fresh Kills may have taken a large step forward this week with the announcement of a possible compromise. WTC Families for Proper Burial has offered a proposal to relocate the more than 1.5 million tons of World Trade Center material buried on a former Fresh Kills landfill trash mound to a pristine section of the Fresh Kills property. A 16-acre memorial would be created at the top of the new burial site so family members and others could visit to pay respects to those who perished on 9/11. The proposal has the backing of Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro.

WTC Families for Proper Burial founder Diane Horning said, “Our goal, ultimately, is to get them off the trash. If this is the only way we could do that, we will make this a decent, respectful cemetery. It is appealing because it could be done quickly," in a Staten Island Advance article. The new plan is also far less costly—running about 80 million dollars—than alternate proposals to relocate the remains. The low cost makes the plan much more acceptable to the City of New York, the Port Authority and other agencies that would foot the bill.

The proposed site to relocate the remains is a 26-acre parcel in an area called "The Point” that has never been used as landfill. Once filled in with the World Trade Center material, the memorial park would reach to a height of 60 feet, allowing visitors a direct view of Lower Manhattan. The proposal, if implemented, would only take nine to 12 months to complete, which appeals to families seeking closure after a long struggle to remove the remains from a garbage dump.

The relocated burial area would contain a memorial with grave markers for each of the 2,749 people killed in the attacks. Flags from each victim's native country would also surround the memorial, according to a rendering prepared by Albany-based Clough Harbour & Associates LLP for Taylor Recycling, a company working with WTC Families for Proper Burial on the proposal.

According to Diane Horning, the plan is “a logical, moral and sensible solution." The proposal also has the early support of some City officials, though NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has yet to weigh in. Bloomberg has called previous relocation plans, some with price tags up to $1 billion, infeasible for the City. Hopefully VOICES e-Newsletter will have more encouraging news on the proposal to report soon.

The Department of Homeland Security this week unveiled their new website to provide information and resources to young people on personal and community preparedness, “Ready Kids.” The website features Rex the Mountain Lion, an animated readiness maven who helps children learn more about the importance of preparing for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. VOICES is proud to promote this important initiative to educate our nation's youth. DHS hopes Rex will be as popular and iconic as previous animals used to market government initiatives, such as forest-firefighter Smokey the Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog, who encourages kids to “take a bite out of crime.”

“Preparedness is not just a government challenge,” DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a ceremony in Chicago to kick off the program. “We must all have a plan, as well as capabilities and resources,” Chertoff added, as quoted in a Medill News Service article. Ready Kids materials already have been distributed to 135,000 middle-school teachers in the 25 largest U.S. cities. However, the schools have significant leeway in how to integrate the campaign into their curriculum. VOICES encourages parents to actively involve their children in family preparedness planning. Ready Kids is a wonderful resource for parents and children alike.

The death-penalty phase of the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui began this week in Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Moussaoui admits to being a member of al-Qaeda, and on April 22nd, 2005 pled guilty to six terrorism-related crimes [read a 2005 New York Times Article] stemming from a plot to fly a hijacked airliner into the White House. However, Moussaoui maintains that his plot was distinct from the 9/11 attacks, and that he was not the “20th hijacker” as some officials have charged...READ MORE

ARE YOU PLANNING TO PARTICIPATE IN, ATTEND, OR WATCH THE MOUSSAOUI TRIAL?
VOICES Would Like To Know So We Can Serve You Better

Please email VOICES to let us know if and how you plan to be involved in the upcoming penalty phase of the Zacharias Moussaoui trial. Some family members will travel to the courtroom to attend the trial or offer victim's impact statements, an important part of all death penalty trials. In addition, about 1,000 family members have told the Justice Department that they plan to watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television at one of five satellite locations set up at courthouses in Boston, Manhattan, Newark, Philadelphia and Long Island, NY, according to a recent Washington Post article.

Providing us information on your planned level of involvement in the trial will help us design mental health and support programs to better fit your needs. Thanks in advance for keeping us informed.

VOICES TO DISTRIBUTE HANDBOOK FOR FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY CASES

VOICES is distributing copies of "Victims and Survivors: Finding Your Way Through Court Proceedings in Federal Death Penalty Cases." The 80-page handbook, compiled by the Institute for Justice and Peacebuilding in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is full of information to help laypeople navigate the complicated process of a Federal death penalty case. It has a step-by-step outline of trial proceedings and a helpful glossary of arcane legal terms. "Finding Your Way" is easy to read and a valuable resource for all 9/11 families as the Moussaoui penalty phase approaches. Please email VOICES or call us at (203) 966-3911 and toll-free at (866) 505-3911 to request a copy today at no cost to you.

The $2.77 trillion 2007 budget request President Bush sent to Capitol Hill this week asks for a sizeable increase in homeland security funding. In the President’s budget proposal, the Department of Homeland Security budget would increase by $2.4 billion to $35.6 billion in 2007. However, the President is proposing deep cuts in first-responder programs to help underwrite the 7 percent funding increase. Instead of stepping-up disaster response capabilities, the new funding would support a major boost in border security, including 1,500 new border agents, according to a news analysis in Congressional Quarterly. But much of President Bush’s planned increase in DHS appropriations would require doubling the airline passenger security ticket fee from $2.50 to $5. Last year the president proposed the same increase and was rejected by Congress. Lawmakers are likely to reject the increase again, especially in an election year.

Congressional Leaders Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) have called for a renewed commitment to proper oversight of civil liberties as America fights the war on terror. Maloney and Shays stated yesterday, "As the Administration claims increased constitutional power it becomes even more important that the board be up and running, and has the teeth to do the job." Click here to read their statement. The 9/11 Commission recommended the civil liberties oversight board in their report, and VOICES believes that developments such as the NSA Domestic Surveillance program make a robust board more important than ever. “It is crucial that an independent, bipartisan civil liberties board is established with the necessary oversight to ensure that our rights as Americans are not infringed upon,” according to Founding Director Mary Fetchet in a March, 2005 press release. VOICES will continue to support Reps. Maloney and Shays in their effort to bring civil liberties oversight back to the government’s agenda. Click here for background on the Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

The Beth Logler Internship Program -- was created to provide meaningful summer employment in the New York area for a college student (ideally a junior) who has an interest in public, investor or media relations or corporate communications and who has lost a parent or sibling from Cantor Fitzgerald. The deadline has been extended to 2/24/06 and there are still four internships remaining. All inquiries should be sent to dougcleary@hotmail.com.

NYPD Property Clerk Has Returned 84% of Personal Items from Ground Zero -- The NYPD Property Clerk's Office has catalogued roughly 135,000 personal items recovered from Ground Zero and Fresh Kills landfill, and so far, 113,400 have been returned to the victim's families. (NY Post)

9/11 Memorial Museum Hires Director from Holocaust Museum -- A top administrator from the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. has been chosen as the new Director of the 9/11 Memorial Museum planned for the WTC site. (NY Times)

A Link Forged by Tragedy -- People in Shanksville, PA have a poignant connection to the Pittsburgh Steelers that stems from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times)

On the Bookshelf: How to Prepare Your Family for a Disaster -- A new book from the director of NYC School security on 9/11 tells ordinary folks what they can do to get ready for a potential catastrophe. (Interview with author Gregory Thomas in US News and World Report)

Whitman, EPA Will Face Lawsuit on Ground Zero Air Quality -- Environmental Protection Agency head Christie Todd Whitman made "misleading statements of safety" about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks and may have put the public in danger, a federal judge found last Friday.

Click for a list of ongoing medical offerings for Ground Zero workers