9/11 still killing

I get my news on the internet these days, and as I was browsing blogs with my morning coffee in my hand today, I found this. "This" is an epic Fail on the part of this entire country to appropriately care for 9/11's first responders and the residents and workers in the immediate neighborhood.

But as if "this" wasn't bad enough, I looked up the law proposed to remedy it, and that was worse. "That" includes Congressional findings on the aftermath of 9/11. A few high points:

• On average, a New York City firefighter who responded has lost 12 years of lung function.
• Nearby buildings are, as far as anyone knows, still contaminated with "caustic" dust, to which workers and children are still being exposed daily
• All told, a half million people were exposed
• Nearly a third of the firefighters were still sick five years later, and 65% of them are scraping by on less than $15,000 a year because they can't work.
  
• Many lost their health insurance, Workers Comp has been jerking them around, and a lot of folk are going broke paying for their own care--or going without and dying.

And guess what? There's a lot of posttraumatic stress! Well, duh.

Go read the bill, please. And if it shocks you like it does me, contact your legislators and ask 'em to vote for it.

For my part, I will treat--absolutely free of charge--one person who can demonstrate to my satisfaction (a) that hir psychological problems stem from their presence at or near the Twin Towers on 9/11, and (b) that s/he does not have the financial resources &/or insurance to afford treatment on hir own. I'm on Main Street in Woodstock, GA.

Call me: 770-924-1818, extension 307.

It's the least I can do.