Saturday, December 25, 2010

9/11 First Responders Bill Passed

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was finally passed by both Houses of Congress. It required some compromise, but it's about time this got done. Many thanks should go to Jon Stewart of The Daily Show for shaming enough Republicans and the mainstream press, who were not covering this much at all, into doing the right thing. Excellent Christmas present to all the first responders and their families.

Monday, December 20, 2010

9/11 First Responders

Let's hope the Republicans get on board and help pass the Zadroga Bill. For a party that invokes 9/11 so much, you'd think they would be leading the charge on passage of this. Truly shameful.

The bill is intended to provide health monitoring and financial aid to sick 9/11 workers. Seems like a good idea to me to help the many, many people who responded to this tragedy and worked tirelessly trying to save any possible survivors, and by recovering remains, provided some closure to victims families. So many of them have had horrific health issues because of the toxic environment they worked in for a long time. True heroes.

And indeed they are heroes. Not only the responders, but the ones who ran up those towers and gave their lives trying to help others. Doc and I went to NYC about 5 weeks after 9/11. Just felt like we needed to go and be tourists, spend some money to help the NYC economy and to pay respects. Couldn't get near the site, but every time a fire truck or emergency vehicle went by, whether coming to or from ground zero, every single person on the street stopped what they were doing and applauded. I've never seen anything like it. It had such an impact on me as to what it means to be heroic and how all of us should respect that. Come on Republicans!!