15 Minutes of Fame

Have you seen this story in the news?  A woman claims to have been a victim of the World Trade Center bombing on 9/11.  Alleges she lost her fiance, was rescued by an unidentified man, suffered burns, and found an inscribed wedding band she later returned to its owner.  This story netted her a position as director of a non-profit organization for 9/11 and speaking engagements everywhere.  Nothing about her story checks out.  The family of her “fiance” have never heard of her.  The employer she said she had has no listing of her as an employee… there is enough fact disputing her story to identify her as a fake. 

What’s your first reaction to this?  Does it make any difference if I tell you that she didn’t get paid for her work with the non-profit organization or for the speaking engagements? 

I personally can’t judge her too harshly.  Like everyone else, I was horrified and saddened by the tragedy of 9/11.  But after hours, weeks and days of coverage…the novelist in me took over and I couldn’t help thinking of possible scenarios.  Like a man unhappy in his marriage who drops his monogrammed watch in the burning stairwell and slips unnoticed through rescue crews to a new life. 

This unfortunate woman used the worst tragedy to befall America in its history as a means to gain attention.  She might as well spend the remainder of her life with a big red L sewed to the front of all her shirts, or a perpetual suit of tar and feathers.  There’s no recovering from this kind of deception.