Mind Boggling
On the eve of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S., there was an article on the front page of the New York Times about the Twin Towers. It mentioned the rarely referred to jumpers, people who jumped out of the Towers rather then stay in the buildings and die from other means. The writer went on and tried to imagine how BAD it must have been in the towers, for the jumpers to decide to... well jump rather then stay in the buildings.
When I mentioned this to one of my co-workers tonight, an African who is going to college here in the U.S., she said how shocked she was with the whole thing.
I pointed out that I was not so shocked about the terrorist attack. I've read about all sorts of attacks in Israel and around the world. Yes the twin towers was bigger then any other SINGLE attack, but then that's really been the only attack on U.S. soil for over 50 years.
I told her what shocked ME was not the fact that the U.S. got attacked... or that people preferred a quick jump to a long suffocation( or burning), what shocked me was that the government, in the form of the EPA, lied to the rescue workers and New Yorkers about how much danger they were in. You see much of one tower had Asbestos in it and the EPA was saying that was OK to breathe in downtown Manhattan, even though there was asbestos in the air and potentially other harmful dust particles( like lead, glass fibers and other stuff that went kaboom with the towers).
However it wasn't ok to breathe there as a article on Asbestos Network mentions last year.
http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_091203_911_asbestos.htm
An article filed in 2002 mentions that as early as one year later, rescue workers were coming down with a "World Trade Center Cough"- which is to say that enough people had it, that it needed a nice catch phrase.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/9-11/07wtc02.htm
Both articles mention the fact that apartments near the twin towers STILL contain dangerous levels of asbestos... and that the U.S. Government is doing nothing about it.
Oh wait- they're doing the standard W. take to "environmental issues", they are doing NOTHING. It was more important for them to have New York LOOK like it was getting back to business, that they didn't bother checking 'Is it safe to get back to business?'
And this hurt Americans. Our own government decided it was more important to look STRONG and RESOLUTE then wondering if it's citizens were SAFE. That's what shocks me.
When I mentioned this to one of my co-workers tonight, an African who is going to college here in the U.S., she said how shocked she was with the whole thing.
I pointed out that I was not so shocked about the terrorist attack. I've read about all sorts of attacks in Israel and around the world. Yes the twin towers was bigger then any other SINGLE attack, but then that's really been the only attack on U.S. soil for over 50 years.
I told her what shocked ME was not the fact that the U.S. got attacked... or that people preferred a quick jump to a long suffocation( or burning), what shocked me was that the government, in the form of the EPA, lied to the rescue workers and New Yorkers about how much danger they were in. You see much of one tower had Asbestos in it and the EPA was saying that was OK to breathe in downtown Manhattan, even though there was asbestos in the air and potentially other harmful dust particles( like lead, glass fibers and other stuff that went kaboom with the towers).
However it wasn't ok to breathe there as a article on Asbestos Network mentions last year.
http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_091203_911_asbestos.htm
An article filed in 2002 mentions that as early as one year later, rescue workers were coming down with a "World Trade Center Cough"- which is to say that enough people had it, that it needed a nice catch phrase.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/9-11/07wtc02.htm
Both articles mention the fact that apartments near the twin towers STILL contain dangerous levels of asbestos... and that the U.S. Government is doing nothing about it.
Oh wait- they're doing the standard W. take to "environmental issues", they are doing NOTHING. It was more important for them to have New York LOOK like it was getting back to business, that they didn't bother checking 'Is it safe to get back to business?'
And this hurt Americans. Our own government decided it was more important to look STRONG and RESOLUTE then wondering if it's citizens were SAFE. That's what shocks me.
1 Comments:
At 9/11/2004 01:23:00 AM,
Unknown said…
At this point, it doesn't shock me what this administration does. Of course it ignores the safety and well-being of its people in order to create a false front of national security...
I often forget the jumpers as well. Was most recently reminded while watching "Rescue Me" this week (Dennis Leary's new show) when they flashed back to 9/11 and the firefighters were warned to be careful of the falling jumpers--something mentioned even more rarely than the jumpers themselves: the dangers to others caused by the jumping jumpers.
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