Wednesday September 10, 2008

September 10 was a work day for me. After work, I went to the Anna Sui show with my co-workers. We had an unprecedented amount of models in the show:

1. Agyness Deyn
2. Bruna Tenorio
3. Isabeli Fontana
4. Jourdan Dunn
5. Katrin Thormann
6. Mina Cvetkovic
7. Natasha Poly
8. Naty Chabanenko
9. Shannan Click
10. Suzanne Diaz
11. Toni Garrn
12. Viktoriya Sasonkina
13. Vlada Roslyakova

For Women, 13 was a lucky number!

After the show, I went to the V Magazine party, celebrating the V Magazine covers that Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin photographed, at the Mini Cooper Rooftop in Hell's Kitchen. Usually I skip fashion parties - especially during Fashion Week. But, I was with my co-workers and it seemed like a good idea at the time. We were able to skip the long line outside because we were with one of the models who was on the cover of V Magazine - who was also DJ'ing that night.

As soon as we got up the stairs, I was greeted by a girl I know.

This girl claims to be my friend, but she's not very friendly. Usually when I see her, she's quite rude. When I see her, sometime she will say hello, sometimes she won't. Either way, it doesn't matter to me.

The party was fun. Lykke Li performed.

Today I was looking through the latest V Magazine, and on page 42, the party page, I saw the photos that JD Ferguson took at the party. JD is a friend of mine. I once styled a test he shot of Carolina Pantoliano. I was shocked to see that JD photographed Barbara Bush at the V Magazine Party!

I was at the same party as Barbara Bush and I didn't know it!

Not George W. Bush's mother, the one who on March 18, 2003, two days before the beginning of the war on Iraq, when ABC's Good Morning America asked her about her family's television viewing habits; she replied:
I watch none. He [former President Bush] sits and listens and I read books, because I know perfectly well that, don't take offense, that 90 percent of what I hear on television is supposition, when we're talking about the news. And he's not, not as understanding of my pettiness about that. But why should we hear about body bags and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or that or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that, and watch him suffer.

And, while visiting a Houston relief center for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, told the radio program Marketplace,
"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're gonna move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas... Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality, and so many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them".

No, not that Barbara Bush.

No, I was at the same party as George W. Bush's daughter, also named Barbara Bush.

I am disappointed I didn't get the opportunity to meet her, and talk to her. Barbara Bush is the same age as my brother, Joseph. Besides being my brother, and my best friend, Joseph is an Iraq War Veteran. He joined the Marines as a teenager and was sent to Iraq in 2003. My brother was in Iraq at the same time that Barbara Bush was interning at Proenza Schoueler. Our father is retired from the phone company, and currently drives a bus - he picks up senior citizens and brings them to the senior citizen recreation center.

Barbara Bush's father, George W. Bush, is until January 29, 2009, the President of the United States of America (POTUS). Barbara Bush's father made a series of claims prior to the Iraq War, each intended to support the idea that Saddam Hussein was a grave and imminent threat. None of these claims were true.

Eight Pre-War Bush Claims since proven false:
• No weapons of mass destruction of any kind were found in Iraq.
• No mobile biological weapons labs were found in Iraq.
• Iraq did not seek to acquire yellowcake uranium from Africa.
• The aluminum tubes were not suitable for nuclear weapons development.
• Mohamed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker, did not meet with Iraqi intelligence in Prague.
• Iraq did not provide chemical weapons training to al-Qaeda.
• There was no collaborative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda.
• The implication that Iraq was involved in the attacks of 9/11 was untrue.

According to The U.S. Department of Defense, as of December 16, 2008, 10 a.m., there were
4,211 US military fatalities in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. 17,279 US soldiers were wounded in action in this area.

My brother, Joseph, could have been one of those dead or wounded soldiers. Fortunately he is alive, safe, and lives with me.

If I had met Barbara Bush at the V Magazine party on September 10, 2008 I would have asked her some tough, but fair, questions. Although I can not hold her responsable for the actions of her father, I would want some answers.

I left the party shortly after midnight. I'm not sure if Barbara Bush was still at the party. Perhaps I accidentally spent part of the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at a party with Barbara Bush!

On September 11, 2001 I was working at a different modelling agency in NYC, with direct views of the World Trade Center.

On 9/11/2001 Barbara Bush's father, President George W. Bush was reading The Pet Goat to a group of schoolchildren at Emma E. Booker Elementary School at the moment (then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card) informed him of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

After Card informed him that United Airlines Flight 175 had hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center, Bush continued reading the book for more than seven minutes. Bush's critics, notably Michael Moore in his film Fahrenheit 9/11, have argued that the fact that Bush continued to read the book after being notified of the attacks shows that he was indecisive. After spending about twenty minutes with the children, Bush was scheduled to give a short press conference at about 9:30. At the conference inside the school, Bush made his first speech about the attacks and was not evacuated by the Secret Service. According to Bill Sammon in Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism from Inside the White House, Bush's then-Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was in the back of the classroom holding a pad on which he had written "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET."Osama bin Laden made reference to the story in a videotaped speech released just prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, claiming that Bush's reading of the book had given the hijackers more than enough time to carry out the attacks.

Every day I think about that day, and being in Manhattan and how my life was changed since then.

If I spoke to Barbara Bush at V Magazine party I would ask her how 9/11 changed her life. I would ask her how often she thinks about 9/11.

While my brother was in Iraq. I couldn't read the New York Times, or watch the news at all. Every time I heard anything about Iraq I could only imagine the worst. The day he came home safe was the biggest relief of my life.

If I spoke to Barbara Bush at the V Magazine party I would ask her if she was able to read the New York Times or watch the tv news while she was interning at Proenza Schouler.

I know that's not really party talk. But I have learned that true freedom is the ability to speak truth to power.

Video of Barbara Bush's father, George W. Bush reading on 9/11: