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On 20th anniversary of 9/11, questions, anger and death linger

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  • #16
    We had a flight out of Austin very shortly after air travel resumed. TSA had not yet been developed, so the National Guard was providing security - fully battle dress uniforms, riot gear, fully automatic weapons.

    We had our granddaughter with us, and she was only 2 or 3 at the time.

    They made us go through the metal detectors (they were scary looking things) one at a time, the child first. She looked scared to death, because just ahead were these three battle ready soldiers.
    We tried to coax her to go through, but she was scared.

    Finally, one of the soldiers handed his M16 to his buddy, took off his helmet, and knelt on the floor, held his arms out to her, and said, "come on, baby, I'm a daddy, too".
    I still get choked up thinking about that.

    She looked up at us, we nodded, and she walked right into his arms, and he picked her up and held her until we got through the "checkpoint".

    He done good!!!
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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    • #17
      I was watching a video tape of Sesame Street with my son when it happened. Afterwards, I turned on the news and saw a smoking pile of rubble, not having any idea what it signified, though the reporters looked devastated.. Before long, they went over the events of the morning, and then I went to tell my wife, who was in the shower.

      I went to work that day, and don't remember much about that. I do remember going to a local mall food court for lunch, only to find that they were closing down, so I went to McDonald's instead. On my way back to work, I noted the surrealness of not seeing any planes in the sky, where there was usually a steady stream of them approaching LAX. Shortly after I got back to work, we were sent home for the day.

      It wasn't long before I was sick of seeing the videos of the plane striking the south tower, and the buildings burning and collapsing.

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      • #18
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        • #19
          Originally posted by Gondwanaland View Post

          Agreed, it's shameful that it took so long to even get the program set up for first responders and survivors, and even more so that they didn't even have the basic thought of making sure inflation was taken into account.
          On that note, this is an interesting article on the more widespread and largely unrecognized effects of the twin towers attacks on the local area (which has arguably killed more people than those killed directly in the attack on the WTC):

          https://finance.yahoo.com/news/not-a...123319592.html


          '9/11 didn’t end on 9/11': attorney says his clients are still dying 20 years later

          Michael Barasch’s law firm is just two blocks away from where the North Tower of the World Trade Center once stood. After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, he and his business partner decided to keep their practice in the same office in the financial district. Barasch says it’s a decision that he and his colleagues have paid a price for.

          “In the last 15 years, my secretary Lyanna had died at age 47 of breast cancer. My paralegal Dennis, also at 47, died of kidney cancer. I'm a prostate cancer survivor. My other secretary Barbara has lymphoma. Two other people in my office have skin cancer. These are all considered related to the toxic dust,” he says.

          The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has linked 68 cancers to the World Trade Center toxins; airborne particles that came from the 400 million tons of debris that spread for miles after the Twin Towers collapsed.

          Just days after 9/11, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assured the people of New York that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe. It turns out, it wasn’t.

          “What did we do wrong?” asks Barasch. “All we did wrong was listen to the EPA. The fact is, they wanted to reopen Wall Street, and they did… We wanted to help the economy and get it going again, but we're paying a price.”


          The Department of Justice reports that 4,500 people have died because of 9/11-related illnesses. That's more than the 2,977 people who were killed in the attacks.

          Barasch represents 8,000 first responders and more than 15,000 others who have died or suffer from 9/11-related cancers and other health issues.

          “Not a day goes by without one of my clients dying,” says Barasch. “9/11 didn’t end on 9/11.”

          People afflicted with a 9/11-related disease are entitled to free lifetime medical care and other benefits from the federal Victim Compensation Fund. In 2019, Congress extended the fund through 2090, but Barasch says just a fraction of the people who are eligible actually take advantage of the fund and access what they are owed.

          “The really heartbreaking thing is we fought so hard to get these bills permanently extended and fully funded, yet so many non-responders, the guys here in Wall Street, the guys at Goldman Sachs (GS), the American Stock Exchange, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, they don't know they are eligible,” he says. “Only 8% of the non-responders have enrolled in the health program, while over 80% of the firefighters and cops ever responded.”

          In 2020, the fund was amended to include eligible COVID-related deaths.

          “If they had COVID and they had an underlying respiratory condition or cancer related to 9/11 that compromised their immune system, then the Victim Compensation Fund will view that as a 9/11-related death,” Barasch explains.

          So far this year, more than 100 of his clients from the 9/11 community have died from COVID.

          “They're giving significant compensation,” says Barasch. “Two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the death, another $250,000 for an underlying cancer, and then if you were under 65, they'll give you lost income up till the age of 65. So this could really mean financial security for a family.”

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          • #20
            America does an AMAZING job of appropriately responding to large disasters as long as they remain in the news.
            We don't do so well when attention is drawn elsewhere.
            This is something that deserves our attention for the rest of our lives.
            The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

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            • #21
              Maybe this is not the thread for this, but I don't really care.

              This speaks volumes about the "terrorism" they were pushing in the early 2000s to keep us all in fear and how sincere they were about it (bold emphasis mine)...

              It was just one page in his remarks. But on that sheet, read with the tone of a disappointed grandfather, former President George W. Bush made his message as clear as he could: the threats to America’s democracy can just as easily foment in the homeland as from abroad.

              “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said, his weight shifting to his left foot behind a formal podium planted in a field of wildflowers and death. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

              It was a point that only Bush could make, a figure whose moral authority more Americans respect now than when his own presidency came to a close. It’s impossible not to link Bush’s contempt for the terrorists who 20 years earlier changed the world by hijacking four planes and turning them into missiles and his scorn for the brand of politics unleashed in the era of former President Donald Trump. One group, backed by Osama bin Laden, sought to destroy America by annihilating symbols of its economic, military and political might. The other, egged on by Trump, sought to set aside the results of the 2020 election and beat Congress into giving Trump another term.

              The right made a huge mistake making this totalitarian POC a political idol.

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              • #22
                Originally posted by seanD View Post
                Maybe this is not the thread for this, but I don't really care.

                This speaks volumes about the "terrorism" they were pushing in the early 2000s to keep us all in fear and how sincere they were about it (bold emphasis mine)...




                The right made a huge mistake making this totalitarian POC a political idol.
                Lol, wow, Bush is such a piece of garbage. What's funny is he was trying to describe the Jan 6th folks there but the cop who shot that day was the only one with no regard for human life, and ironically he in reality literally described the last year (and more) of BLM/Antifa.

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
                  America does an AMAZING job of appropriately responding to large disasters as long as they remain in the news.
                  We don't do so well when attention is drawn elsewhere.
                  I remember the large number of American flags flying on cars and trucks for the next few months. Until it looked like the Philadelphia Eagles might make it to the Super Bowl.

                  Then all the flags changed colors.
                  When I Survey....

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Gondwanaland View Post

                    Lol, wow, Bush is such a piece of garbage. What's funny is he was trying to describe the Jan 6th folks there but the cop who shot that day was the only one with no regard for human life, and ironically he in reality literally described the last year (and more) of BLM/Antifa.
                    It just goes to show you how much of a unprincipled tool he is. How ironic is it that new 911 papers have been released affirming the Saudi's role in 911 (something we already knew), and you have those photos of him walking around holding hands with the same wahhabi autocrats who probably had a hand it in 911.

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