9/11 Legacy
From where I sit here on the couch I can clearly see the two beams of light where the Twin Towers once stood.
Five years later, there is still no memorial. Five years later, we have not only not built any bridges with the rest of the world but have squandered any political goodwill the world once gave us.
Five years later, New Yorkers are still dying.
A report released on September 6, 2006 by Mount Sinai confirmed what we knew here all along. Toxic dust at Ground Zero is hardly news. And yet people seemed shocked, and that surprises me.
Of course it wasn't safe. Never mind the asbestos used for fireproofing, the lead, mercury and other heavy metals from all those computers and electronic equipment, the unknown chemical compounds smoldering for days afterwards.
Your nose told you that the air wasn't safe. You couldn't get away from that smell, all that pulverized concrete and god knows what else.
Not that that stopped me, my husband, or thousands of other New Yorkers from showing up at Ground Zero to help. I knew it wasn't safe but I had to do what I could to help. Everyone who could, did, whether it was cutting away debris searching for survivors or just carrying buckets of water from the marina to flush the toilets next to the chapel where the rescue workers were being fed and equipped.
Is it really any surprise that the same administration that gave us a "Patriot Act" that tramples our constitutional rights, a "Clean Skies" initiative that increased the acceptable levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide and sent us to an unwinnable war over non-existant WMD's told us ONE WEEK after the Towers fell that the air was safe to breathe.
No, unfortunately, it is hardly surprising at all.
Five years later, there is still no memorial. Five years later, we have not only not built any bridges with the rest of the world but have squandered any political goodwill the world once gave us.
Five years later, New Yorkers are still dying.
A report released on September 6, 2006 by Mount Sinai confirmed what we knew here all along. Toxic dust at Ground Zero is hardly news. And yet people seemed shocked, and that surprises me.
Of course it wasn't safe. Never mind the asbestos used for fireproofing, the lead, mercury and other heavy metals from all those computers and electronic equipment, the unknown chemical compounds smoldering for days afterwards.
Your nose told you that the air wasn't safe. You couldn't get away from that smell, all that pulverized concrete and god knows what else.
Not that that stopped me, my husband, or thousands of other New Yorkers from showing up at Ground Zero to help. I knew it wasn't safe but I had to do what I could to help. Everyone who could, did, whether it was cutting away debris searching for survivors or just carrying buckets of water from the marina to flush the toilets next to the chapel where the rescue workers were being fed and equipped.
Is it really any surprise that the same administration that gave us a "Patriot Act" that tramples our constitutional rights, a "Clean Skies" initiative that increased the acceptable levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide and sent us to an unwinnable war over non-existant WMD's told us ONE WEEK after the Towers fell that the air was safe to breathe.
No, unfortunately, it is hardly surprising at all.
Posted at 10:06 PM on
Monday, September 11, 2006
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