9/11: Politics and Money vs. Commitment

Ten years ago many promises were made. “We will never forget the victims of this tragic day” seemed to be on the lips of every elected official. Shortly after these same elected officials took every opportunity to praise the brave first responders who worked tirelessly to find survivors before they took on the task of finding remains of those lost in the rubble. But that was ten years ago and many of those promises have been forgotten. There is already talk about not reading the names at the 9/11 ceremony after this year. We are also all aware that the first responders are not even invited to this year’s ceremony. So much for not forgetting. Prominent elected officials are falling over themselves to be in attendance this year. Many of these have never been there before or only showed up on the 5th anniversary as if the other years did not matter. Many of these will be to too busy running for office to attend next year unless they are behind in the polls in New York. This is the type of hypocritical behavior has been prevalent over the last 10 years. Many have made and continue to make millions or have built their political careers off this tragedy. And these same people have forgotten or only remember when it serves their agenda. Mr. Mayor why don’t you ask some of the survivors who made it out because of the brave first responders if they think these heroes should be able to attend. Or ask a family who were able to respectfully bury their loved one because of the efforts of these same people you look to exclude from this year’s ceremony. As for the reading of the names going forward I ask that you ask all of the 9/11 families not just the select group that you always refer to that have rubber stamped any decision you wanted to make regarding Ground Zero. It has never been a problem reaching out to all of the families when it comes to asking for donations for the memorial so it should not be a problem reaching out to all of them for their opinion on this. While we are speaking about the memorial has anyone even considered how you are going to deal with the tens of thousands (mostly tourists) who are going to want to visit every day if you cannot even handle inviting the first responders for one day. We hope that those in power will take these things into consideration when decisions are being made. Unfortunately when it comes to 9/11 politics and money have always come before commitment.