We don’t listen to statistics anymore. We are bombarded
with them every day. Who has the time to pay attention? 50,000
people die in auto accidents every year yet we hop in our
cars without pause to go to work every morning. Doctors kill
600,000 people every year in medical mistakes and who do we
turn to when we get the flu? I guess huge numbers of people
dying are less important to us than a single tragic event.
Or are they?
On 9/11 more than 3000 people were murdered on television
in front of us all. The horror that we witnessed that morning
will never be erased from our memories. There was another
tragedy regarding that day that has sadly been ignored. The
brave men and women who jumped into action to help were unjustly
put in harms way thanks to our own leaders.
If you haven’t heard by now, thousands of emergency
workers are sick and dying from being exposed to the toxins
at ground zero in the days and months following the attack
on 9/11. For whatever reason, to reassure us, to get back
to normalcy, to feel like someone was taking care of business,
our leaders decided to tell the emergency workers it was safe
to continue their clean up efforts.
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In the video clip below Rudy Giuliani states on September
11, 2001 that he was not aware of any dangers from the asbestos
in the air at ground zero.
On Sept 28, 2001 Giuliani stays with the same reassuring
sentiment that all is well. "The air quality is safe
and acceptable. And I know there are people that are concerned
about it and people that are worried about it, but that's
just the reality." [Giuliani, 9/28/01] But between these
two dates did Rudy find out the air around ground zero was
unsafe to breathe?
According to an article in the New York Daily News "Government
documents uncovered by this column since 9/11 showed city
and federal officials hid important information about the
true extent of contamination. The city's Department of Environmental
Protection, for example, found high levels of asbestos in
27 of the first 38 air samples it took in lower Manhattan
before Sept. 17, 2001. But the city didn't publicly disclose
those results until five months later." [Daily News (New
York), 9/6/06]
In another article by UPI they report “A 2001 memo
reveals then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani re-opened sections
of downtown Manhattan weeks after the 9/11 attacks despite
knowing the air was toxic. The New York Post published a CBS
News report that said the city's Department of Environmental
Protection was overruled by the mayor after it said it was
"uncomfortable" with the idea of reopening the area
to the public.” [UPI (New York) 9/7/06
So how many innocent people and rescue workers will Rudy
Giuliani have killed by lying about the hazards of the downtown
air quality? Let’s take a look at the numbers.
According to USA Today, “About 40,000 workers toiled
at Ground Zero, including immigrant day laborers, contractors,
volunteers from other towns, paramedics, firefighters and
police officers.” This number does not even include
the huge number of people who were allowed downtown after
the city reopened the area. Later in the article, David Worby,
a lawyer in White Plains, N.Y., who represents about 8,000
clients with health problems says, “There are thousands
of people who will get cancer and will die from this, and
the government isn't doing anything." Worby says, "Every
week I get one or two calls from a cop saying, 'What do I
do for my wife and kids? I've just been diagnosed with leukemia
or sarcoidosis (an inflammation that creates scar tissue,
often in the lungs).”
There it is. Thousands more people will die due to Giuliani’s
cover-up. But will these numbers convince anyone? Remember
the big statistics don’t affect us as much as the in-your-face
tragedy of a horrific event. Well let’s go back to that
USA Today article and face the unseen tragedy this cover-up
has caused.
“It was late in the night when James Zadroga, sleeping
beside his 4-year-old daughter, woke up to fetch her some
milk. It was no easy errand: The former New York City police
detective's lungs were so scarred that he needed supplemental
oxygen to breathe.
In 2001, after the attack on the World Trade Center, he'd
donned a paper mask and toiled at Ground Zero on rescue and
recovery missions. Then he developed a cough and damaged lungs.
Four years later, the 34-year-old was dying.
Sometime in that January night, Zadroga fell to the bedroom
floor. At dawn, his father came into the room and found him,
then gently woke the girl to tell her that Zadroga was dead.
Her bottle was still in his hand. "I told her that her
daddy has passed and she cried, 'No, no, he's just sleeping,
he just got up to get me a bottle,' " says Joseph Zadroga,
of Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., who is now raising his
granddaughter, Tyler Ann.”
What is our collective responsibility to this child we have
never met? When Tyler Ann grows up and realizes that we all
ignored facts and held a criminal up as a presidential candidate
instead of holding him responsible for murder, how will we
defend our inaction?
Jimmy Riches, whose firefighter son died on 9/11, said “One
hundred and twenty one firefighters in the north tower died
that day. Giuliani now says he was a hero. But all he did
was run that day.”
Now Rudy’s running for president. What are we going
to do to honor the real heroes that died on 9/11 and are still
dying everyday?
I encourage anyone who wants to help the 9/11 First Responders
to please donate to the Feel Good Foundation.
