Colour Me Unimpressed

When debris rained from the sky in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, the first responders to the terrorist attack did not turn away. They rushed to the World Trade Center buildings while the world around them crumbled.

Yet now, after all the wreckage has been cleared and the rebuilding has begun, their path is again blocked -- not by flying chunks of smoldering rubble, but by space constraints.

The first responders are not invited to this year's September 11 memorial ceremony at ground zero, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office confirmed Monday.

       - Jeff Stein, CNN- August 30, 2011

So, let me get this straight.  These men and women, who were the first ones to run to the aid of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, to save those who had survived the initial collapse of the towers and to help identify and mourn for the ones lost in the attack, are not even going to be publicly thanked for their sacrifice and be allowed to remember their comrades who didn't make it out of the wreckage?

Oh, no. Thank the seat-warming politicians who owe their lives to those same rescue workers, and have decided to reward them by deciding that there is no room at the memorial service for those selfless men and women, and instead is going to be filling their places with the families of the casualties and a couple of other politicians.

Now, I do understand that the families of the victims want to be able to publicly mourn and remember their loved ones. God only knows they've been through enough grief in the last ten years since the attacks. And I do see that there are evidently security issues that need to be addressed- given that it's the ten-year anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on the States in many, many years.

But Mr. Bloomberg, I have to ask you this. As the mayor of a permanently-scarred New York City, do you fully appreciate what these people went through to save the innocents in the towers? Do you even CARE that those same rescuers are suffering through permanent, debilitating illness and injury due to the hazardous conditions in the days and weeks following 9/11, or are they just a strain on American coffers in your eyes? Are you one of the ones who refuses to acknowledge the cancers and illnesses that those first responders are suffering through ten years later were quite possibly the results of injuries, hazardous chemicals, dust and other assorted toxins endured while they were trying to pull out survivors and bodies. What do you feel about the rescuers who had to become rescuees themselves- or joined the other dead within the rubble? Do those people not deserve the chance to be able to mourn beside those who lost their spouses, parents, siblings, children or friends in the attack?

First responders will be given a separate ceremony at a later date.

Glenn Schuck, CBS New York- August 13, 2011

No. 9/11 did not happen on a later date, and neither should a seperate ceremony. The first responders who ran to the wreckage without any thought for their own safety deserve to pay their respects beside the families who lost their loved ones and the politicians who, more than likely, weren't even present.

Those first responders didn't wait 'til the next day, or even the next week, to go help. And they certainly didn't wait for an invitation. Why regulate them to the back of the line, then? It's only thanks to them that more people beside the 3000 didn't die.



Linked from CNN's website. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/16/new.york.911.memorial/
Linked from CBS New York's website. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/13/report-911-first-responders-not-invited-to-10th-anniversary-ceremony-at-ground-zero/