9/11 responders: Gulf Coast oil spill victims are getting their money - where's ours?

[Shortline Bus]

9/11 responders: Gulf Coast oil spill victims are getting their money - where's ours?

 

BY Michael Mcauliff

NY DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

 

Friday, June 18th 2010

 

WASHINGTON - "The gulf oil catastrophe is striking a raw nerve with 9/11 victims who finally get their first hearing in the U.S. Senate this month.

 

After watching President Obama declare BP will be held accountable, people whose lives were crushed by the 2001 terror attacks said their government remains unaccountable to them.

 

"The government told us it was safe, the government told us to go in there," said Jennifer McNamara, whose firefighter husband listened to then-EPA boss Christie Whitman say the air was safe. John McNamara died last year of cancer.

 

"Where the hell's the accountability from our government?" said his widow.

 

The House is near passing a bill to bring accountability with the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, but the Senate lags. Its first hearing is June 29.

 

It can't come soon enough for Sept. 11 victims watching the feds scrambling - rightly, they say - to help people in the gulf while 9/11 responders are dying.

 

"The time between then and where we are now has really clouded a lot of people's vision," said Tom Fay, a cancer survivor .

 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) wondered whether future heroes will respond to horrors like the gulf spill if 9/11 victims go begging. "We have an undeniable moral obligation to help the heroes of 9/11," she said. "Failure to do so may have long-lasting implications on future response efforts."

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/06/18/2010-06-18_no_wellspring_of_government_accountability_to_us_911_responders_say.html#ixzz0rGTb7bzm

[St Louis Car 09]

This is going to get ugly.But 9-11 responders are in the right lane on this one.many others who were down there who haven`t gotten Ill can potentially become ill from the asbestos and other harmful material from that day.They have a right to receive something.An eventually those who are cleaning up the oil could suffer Ill effects too and may need compensation.

[MTR Admiralty]

9/11 responders do deserve compensation. They rushed right in there, basically giving up their lives in order to try to help any other possible survivors or clean up the mess. Well yes, the oil spill is today's headlines, but we can't forget what those guys did. That air was basically, poisonous. Countless workers AND DOGS suffered traumatic effects and terminal illnesses as a result of working there for weeks.

[metsfan]

The real problem is W bush said a lot of words as far as helping the responders who need it, then never did anything. Several people have died from pulmonary obstructions/not getting enough oxygen. Money for procedures early on could have prevented these problems, as well as the city not being lied to by the bush era EPA that the air was safe.

 

BP is a company, it is here now, it is going to put the 20 billion together. W bush is no longer in office and many of the cases of health issues were rejected so there is not the documentation needed to help. I think if Obama wants to do something good for these still suffering families, a relief fund should be set up for them too, with cross checking to make sure there is no abuse or fraud. With some of his policies and such being unpopular, even though they are good for the country, something like this might not go over well with some folks.

 

Hard to get anything useful done in washington when no matter what you do someone is going to feel slighted.

 

- A

[MTR Admiralty]

Hard to get anything useful done in washington when no matter what you do someone is going to feel slighted.

 

- A

 

How about a fund by the private sector?