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To the editor:
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was working as a home instruction teacher for the NYC Board of Education. My job was to teach students unable to attend school because of physical or emotional problems.
On the morning of that day, I saw my first student who lived on Thompson Street, 20 blocks directly north of the Twin Towers.
At approximately 8:45 a.m., there was an enormous roar that sounded as if it was coming over the roof of the student’s building. Seconds later there was a loud thump.
Rushing out to Thompson Street, we saw flames and black smoke shooting out from the side of one of the towers on the upper floors of the building. After standing on Thompson Street for a while, I decided to cancel the rest of my classes and take the F train to Brooklyn.
Between Smith and 9th street and 4th avenue, the elevated train briefly stopped. I looked out the window toward lower Manhattan. At that very moment, one of the towers collapsed. It seemed like a special effect from a disaster film.
A few days later I was back at work. One of my other students lived in Chinatown, eight blocks from Ground Zero.
I taught this student every day for the rest of the school year. The air below Canal Street smelled terrible. I used a handkerchief and later a mask when I visited him.
New Yorkers within days were assured by the Bush administration that it was safe to return to the area near the World Trade Center. Twenty-five years later neither the Federal government nor City Hall has been forthcoming about when they learned that this area below Canal Street would be unsafe for months, given the toxic air that resulted from the attacks on the World Trade Center.
The 9/11 attacks began an era not only of an endless war on terror, but also of an alarming version of the national security state and the imperial presidency. The United States would wreck military havoc on the world and undermine civil liberties and democracy at home. It was a roadmap for a future that has come to fruition with the second Trump administration.
Howard Elterman
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Valete
You had my attention until the last paragraph, where you veered from the devastation of the Sept. 11 attacks to Trump.
Let's be real: those wars were old before Trump ever took office. Men who never saw a battlefield built the security state years ago, right after the towers fell. They made the rules, and they sent our men to die on foreign sand.
It’s politically correct today to blame Trump for the failings of past administrations. But the fact of the matter is clear: his platform broke the power of the global elites. It took on the foreign quagmires that drained our resources and emptied our towns.
Calling a leader who takes on the bureaucrats an "imperial tyrant" is nonsense. The state was overburdened by past administrations. Trump is fixed on repairing the house from the inside out. Trumpism is defined as follows: A nation must stand on solid footing.
Wednesday, September 9 Report this
reenjoe
Howard, to begin with, George W Bush, Christine Todd Whitman and Rudy Giuliani all lied about the air quality to those in and around ground zero. All three should have been prosecuted for their part in unnecessary deaths that followed the 9/11 attacks.
As for where we are as a country in the aftermath of 9/11, I clearly remember every politician from Bush on down, saying the terrorists won't change who we are. That turned out to be an equally harmful lie.
Wednesday, September 9 Report this
Valete
Federal courts threw out the lawsuits against Christy Whitman. The judges ruled the law shields public officials when making tough calls during a disaster because holding leaders personally responsible so they can be sued would stop emergency responses.
Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush had to balance a total crash of the financial system, mass civilian panic, and a halted economy. They put order and economic recovery first. You cannot charge leaders in criminal court for choosing economic order over safety rules during a war.
As for our country, we changed our security laws to block more attacks. But the U.S. remained a free nation. Our system survived. The terrorists failed.
Friday, September 11 Report this
reenjoe
I can hardly believe what I am reading. Word Man/Robert Sica not only offers a defense for Bush, Whitman and Giuliani withholding critical air quality information from area residents, workers and first responders following 9/11, he vociferously agrees that they did the right thing.
I guess he believes 9,600 deaths and counting was a fair trade off.
Friday, September 11 Report this
Valete
The federal court did not declare 9,600 deaths are a fair trade-off. It ruled on how the system must work—not moral approval.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals made it clear that the EPA’s safe to breathe statements relied on flawed and mixed data. The court ruled that holding an emergency official personally to blame for a failed disaster response would stop future emergency responses.
The law did not ignore the victims. Instead of a personal lawsuit, the government set up the September 11th Compensation Fund to provide a remedy.
If we allow individuals to personally sue crisis managers for flawed decisions made during a national emergency, how could any public official make a split second decision to protect the public in the next disaster????
Sunday, September 13 Report this
reenjoe
The usual Word Man tap dance. I never mentioned courts accepting a trade off. I am saying, very directly, that YOU, WORD MAN agree with that trade off. Specifically, when you write:
"Rudy Giuliani and George W. Bush had to balance a total crash of the financial system, mass civilian panic, and a halted economy. They put order and economic recovery first."
Dodge, weave and spin all you like. Telling area workers, residents and first responders that the air was safe was neither a split second decision nor was it done to protect the public, quite the opposite. It was a calculated lie that put money over lives. No one would have panicked. New Yorkers handled the attacks on the day of 9/11, they certainly would've handled dealing with tainted air. Bush, Whitman and Giuliani never gave them the chance to do so; instead, NYers went on like all was well and 9,600 died and many more will. Shame on this trio for making that decision and shame on you for defending their decision.
Monday, September 14 Report this
Valete
Get your act together, Reenro. I wrote a most informative essay. It totally destroyed your fabled narrative and posts. Since my essay is bulletproof as well as my posts, I will ignore your rants. Anyone who can read knows where you are coming from—fabled stories and political propaganda for the neutered Left. No redundancies for me; I simply destroyed you as anyone can plainly see.
Tuesday, September 15 Report this
reenjoe
Sica, what anyone who can read sees in your "informative essay" is the inner workings of a sociopath's mind. Only a deeply disturbed person like yourself would post a defense for the malicious lie that has taken nearly 10,000 lives and make that post around the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
I pity you, get professional help.
Tuesday, September 15 Report this
Valete
"Cannisi, here’s one more repartee for you to ponder. When people run out of actual answers, they resort to name-calling. Your insults don't describe me at all—they define you perfectly."
Wednesday, September 16 Report this