In the past week we have been treated to the unedifying spectacle of U.S. Senators blocking the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (H.R.847) until the Bush tax cut debate was concluded to their satisfaction. Even with the tax cut issue settled, the Zadroga Bill (or as Jon Stewart memorably put it on The Daily Show “the least we can do no brainer act of 2010”) still languishes on the Senate’s to do list.
The lack of urgency with which this bill has been treated by Congress and the mainstream media is a national disgrace. Politicians who do not hesitate to wrap themselves in the flag and invoke the memory of 9/11 for their own selfish purposes are playing petty politics with the lives of men and women that sacrificed everything to answer their country’s call in one of its darkest hours.
Last Thursday Senator Susan Collins (R- ME) even called Capitol police when she was alarmed to learn that a group of 9/11 first responders planned to camp out in Senate offices until they garnered the necessary 60 votes to secure the bill’s passage.
Named after New York Police Detective and 9/11 responder James Zadroga, whose death was among the first attributed to the cocktail of toxins generated at Ground Zero, the bill seeks to extend and improve the federal government’s response to the health effects of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by providing for long-term medical treatment, compensation, and research. You can find out more about the bill by clicking on this link.
This is a subject close to my heart. My brother-in-law is a New York City firefighter who lost many close friends on 9/11 and spent countless hours down at Ground Zero during the recovery operation, my wife spent months there as a social worker working with families and first responders in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The Bush administration treated the lives of New York’s finest with cavalier disdain. While senior cabinet officials were still hiding out in undisclosed locations, on September 13, 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a press release which stated that the air around the disaster site was relatively safe and that short-term, low-level exposure was “unlikely to cause significant health effects.”
We now know that this wasn’t the case. In February 2006 US District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts found that the “reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks” made by EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman were “without question conscience-shocking.” The EPA’s internal watchdog reached a similar conclusion.
Judge Batts added that the federal government’s dismissive attitude to the potential health risks at Ground Zero increased, “and may have in fact created,” the danger to first responders posed by the hazardous materials released by the disaster.
The federal government owes it to those first responders and volunteers who answered the call on 9/11, and in the weeks and months that followed, to do everything it can to help them in their hour of need. We all do.
The brave men and women of 9/11 who are struggling with health issues arising from their service should be focused on getting better and not worrying about lost income, fretting about rising healthcare costs and being nickled and dimed by extortionate co-pays.
As New York firefighters say, at Ground Zero all gave some, some gave all. These genuine American heroes deserve our respect, and they deserve our support. Call on your senator today pass this act before the end of the lame duck session.
Tom,
I can't think of a way that could have been said any better. My wife is among the first responders outside the ranks of the NYPD and NYFD. She worked 12 hour shifts at ground zero for many weeks and did 2 week shifts for months past the first couple of months. Now we are watching as respiratory ailments are bit my bit deteriorating her lungs. A colleague of hers, working shoulder-to-shoulder with her has lost part of a lung to cancer and faces a daunting future.
It is an outrage to me that these Senate "leaders" of ours are playing political games with these peoples lives and the general public is largely indifferent.
This short video takes the issue and turns it around on our "leaders". I sort of wish "our" senators would see it and think about what they are doing and the effect it could have on so many.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjKgkhux6o
Tom,
I can't think of a way that could have been said any better. My wife is among the first responders outside the ranks of the NYPD and NYFD. She worked 12 hour shifts at ground zero for many weeks and did 2 week shifts for months past the first couple of months. Now we are watching as respiratory ailments are bit my bit deteriorating her lungs. A colleague of hers, working shoulder-to-shoulder with her has lost part of a lung to cancer and faces a daunting future.
It is an outrage to me that these Senate "leaders" of ours are playing political games with these peoples lives and the general public is largely indifferent.
This short video takes the issue and turns it around on our "leaders". I sort of wish "our" senators would see it and think about what they are doing and the effect it could have on so many.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjKgkhux6o
Tom,
I can't think of a way that could have been said any better. My wife is among the first responders outside the ranks of the NYPD and NYFD. She worked 12 hour shifts at ground zero for many weeks and did 2 week shifts for months past the first couple of months. Now we are watching as respiratory ailments are bit my bit deteriorating her lungs. A colleague of hers, working shoulder-to-shoulder with her has lost part of a lung to cancer and faces a daunting future.
It is an outrage to me that these Senate "leaders" of ours are playing political games with these peoples lives and the general public is largely indifferent.
This short video takes the issue and turns it around on our "leaders". I sort of wish "our" senators would see it and think about what they are doing and the effect it could have on so many.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjKgkhux6o
Tom,
I can’t think of a way that could have been said any better. My wife is among the first responders outside the ranks of the NYPD and NYFD. She worked 12 hour shifts at ground zero for many weeks and did 2 week shifts for months past the first couple of months. Now we are watching as respiratory ailments are bit my bit deteriorating her lungs. A colleague of hers, working shoulder-to-shoulder with her has lost part of a lung to cancer and faces a daunting future.
It is an outrage to me that these Senate “leaders” of ours are playing political games with these peoples lives and the general public is largely indifferent.
This short video takes the issue and turns it around on our “leaders”. I sort of wish “our” senators would see it and think about what they are doing and the effect it could have on so many.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAjKgkhux6o
These people sacrificed so much of theirselfs and now their health is in need of desperate help because of it. PLEASE HELP these poor people who deserve it so much. What kind of world is this if these people dont get the help they so much deserve!!! Simple human kindness………
These people sacrificed so much of theirselfs and now their health is in need of desperate help because of it. PLEASE HELP these poor people who deserve it so much. What kind of world is this if these people dont get the help they so much deserve!!! Simple human kindness………
Gary,
Our thoughts and hopes are with your wife and her colleagues.
I agree with you 1000%. I was about 11 when it happened and to this day I'll never forget that day. I'll never forget seeing on the television so we all know that those 1st responders will never forget what they've seen and what they've risked. I love politics and I even took it up as a major in college so it infuriates me to see this coming from our political system. The government, much like the military and our public safety systems, are a public service. Neither soldiers nor cops and fire fighters, Christian or not, would find it disrespectful to their religion to go in and work on Christmas day. In fact there are ALWAYS cops, EMTs, and fire fighters working on Christmas day. It was such an honor to have these people step up and take care of the nation while senators were in hiding. Because these senators are doing very little as of now there should be no hesitation to go in and put a policy in place to protect first responders. The pettiness of senators to not protect first responders while sending soldiers to "defend our nation against terrorist" without taking care of those who protect us on the home front leaves us vulnerable because with our nation susceptible to attack because of the incompetence of our government combined with the fear responders to not being protected that leaves us in danger of another major controversy. God help us all especially those soldiers and responders.
Gary,
Our thoughts and hopes are with your wife and her colleagues.
I agree with you 1000%. I was about 11 when it happened and to this day I’ll never forget that day. I’ll never forget seeing on the television so we all know that those 1st responders will never forget what they’ve seen and what they’ve risked. I love politics and I even took it up as a major in college so it infuriates me to see this coming from our political system. The government, much like the military and our public safety systems, are a public service. Neither soldiers nor cops and fire fighters, Christian or not, would find it disrespectful to their religion to go in and work on Christmas day. In fact there are ALWAYS cops, EMTs, and fire fighters working on Christmas day. It was such an honor to have these people step up and take care of the nation while senators were in hiding. Because these senators are doing very little as of now there should be no hesitation to go in and put a policy in place to protect first responders. The pettiness of senators to not protect first responders while sending soldiers to “defend our nation against terrorist” without taking care of those who protect us on the home front leaves us vulnerable because with our nation susceptible to attack because of the incompetence of our government combined with the fear responders to not being protected that leaves us in danger of another major controversy. God help us all especially those soldiers and responders.