Put It Above Ground

Wednesday: 9/11 Organizations, Responders & Widows to Denounce Obama Administration’s Opposition to Guaranteed 9/11 Health Funding

The Coalition of 9/11 organizations will not give up its efforts on behalf of the First Responders. It is our sincere hope that you will continue to join us in our quest for justice.

For the past year we have been trying to give the president the benefit of the doubt.

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50254

Manhattan Elected Officials Urge U.S. Attorney General to Conduct Comprehensive Evaluation of 9/11 Trial Sites and Request Meeting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 28, 2010
CONTACT:

Ilan Kayatsky (Nadler), 212-367-7350
Alex Haurek (Velzquez), 202-226-3636
Dan Weiller (Silver), 518-455-3888
Leilah Mooney (Squadron), 202-701-5209
Matthew Wing (de Blasio), 212-669-4193
Andrew Doba (Stringer), 212-669-7085
Jamie McShane (Quinn), 212-718-7124
Jake Itzkowitz (Chin), 646-300-1092

NEW YORK, N.Y. Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Congresswoman Nydia Velzquez, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and City Councilmember Margaret Chin sent the following letter (also attached), regarding the federal trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other accused terrorists, to United States Attorney General Eric Holder:

January 28, 2010

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As the elected officials representing lower Manhattan, we are writing to you regarding the Administrations proposal to locate the 9/11 terror trials in downtown Manhattan.

We support the Administrations decision to bring those responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center to justice in federal civilian court, and we believe that this decision represents a victory for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. However, we are concerned that the Administration has not fully considered the impact that the trials would have on lower Manhattan in choosing the Moynihan Courthouse in Foley Square. Indeed, the lower Manhattan neighborhoods in which this courthouse is located are only now recovering from the physical, emotional and financial devastation caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and therefore the impacts of this trial site choice are likely to be extremely burdensome.

As such, we respectfully request that your office conduct a full and thorough examination of all potentially viable trial sites within the Southern District of New York in order to assess each sites safety and security requirements, impacts to the surrounding residential and business communities, and financial implications. Without such a full evaluation, it is impossible to determine which Southern District location choice would be optimal.

We further respectfully request a meeting with you, as soon as possible, to discuss these matters and the process by which the ultimate determination on the location of the federal criminal trials will be made.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Congressman Jerrold Nadler
Congresswoman Nydia Velzquez
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
State Senator Daniel Squadron
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
Borough President Scott Stringer
Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Councilmember Margaret Chin

Attached is a copy of the January 28, 2010, Memorandum to Mayor Michael Bloomberg from Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler on the WTC Human Remains Recovery Operation.

Ellen Borakove

Director, Public Affairs

Office of Chief Medical Examiner

520 First Avenue

New York, NY 10016

Tel 212 447 2041

Fax 212 447 2755

Web www.nyc.gov/ocme

http://www.where-to-turn.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=50678

Our prayers are with the Chamberlain family.

Ethel Chamberlain, the mother of Michele Lanza who died on 9/11, passed away yesterday 

The funeral will be Tuesday from the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home in Tottenville, with mass at 10 a.m. in Our Lady Help of Christians Church. Entombment will follow in Woodbridge (N.J.) Memorial Gardens.

Do you remember the time when people said what they meant and meant what they said? Maybe I am getting old but I am beginning to lose things in translation. Here are a few examples.  

Transparency in Government 

Vice President Biden is holding hearings on transparency in government. Sounds good right? But he is holding them behind closed doors with no media access. Am I missing something?  

Disaster Relief for Haiti 

Hundreds of millions have been donated to support the relief effort in Haiti. Sounds good right? Unfortunately only a fraction of this money will actually make it to Haiti. Even though they advertise  these appeals as Haiti Relief efforts if you read the fine print all the money goes into the organization’s general fund and is distributed or not at the discretion of the organization. There is one organization that has collected over $40 million but has only allocated a little over $10 million to Haiti Relief. The same thing happened after 9/11 and Katrina. Whatever happened to truth in advertising?  

We Got You Covered 

In the ongoing battle between wireless providers they keep attacking each other’s coverage. In a recent advertisement Luke Wilson shows a map of coverage in New York. The ad boasts coverage from Bridgeport to Hempstead to Princeton. Isn’t Bridgeport in Connecticut and the last time I checked  wasn’t Princeton in New Jersey? Maybe that’s why they are having problems or am I missing something.  

Hi I Just Moved Here and Want to Be Your Senator 

More and more you see candidates who can’t win in their home states moving to other states to run for office. Wasn’t the government set up so that states would have people that represent them not political parties? Am I the only one who thinks this is wrong?  

The Edward M Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate 

I heard on the radio that there is a $20 million earmark in the current Health Care Bill for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate at the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston. I tried to research this but despite claims of transparency (see item 1) it is still almost impossible to know what is in or not in the bill. I did find out that an earmark for this was originally placed in a Defense Bill. Either way what does this institute which will include an exact replica of the Senate floor to be built on the college campus have to do with health care or defense? 

Maybe I am just lost in translation

We were very saddened, but not surprised, by the news in late December that the US Second Circuit ruled against the ongoing efforts of “WTC Families for a Proper Burial” to force the city to move more than a million tons of WTC debris out of a city dump to an alternate site. While this is apparently not something that can be won in the courts, it can be won in the media.

Thousands of our fellow citizens vanished without a trace and to allow a garbage dump to be the final resting place for their precious remains, no matter how infinitesimal, degrades us, not them. There is no reason why this fight should be left to those who are already bearing the harshest burden of the attacks. We are ONE 9/11 Family and how we handle this will show what kind of country we are and how much power citizens have to get anything that matters done. As the saying goes, when politicians feel the heat, they see the light.

New York officials made an error in judgment in the chaos after 9/11 by not choosing a more respectful location for what was removed from the World Trade Center. So what we can do about it now? WE CAN FIX IT – as those brave workers did when they faced the unimaginable destruction of the attacks and cleared it away in record time, paying for it with their health and lives in ways that are still being revealed.

The City’s position is that “digging up the landfill simply because somebody’s loved ones might be there” is not a “sufficient reason,” that “the city made a Herculean effort to clean the debris before it was sent to the landfill,” and that “the undifferentiated dirt left does not need special handling.” YES IT DOES, because thousands of innocent Americans disappeared into that “undifferentiated dirt.”

The “debris,” as it is called, was sifted conscientiously – and still, bones and personal effects like wallets and credit cards somehow got through the filter. But that misses the point. The significance of the particles is not related to their size or visibility. Remains are remains and the respect we accord them is a measure of our humanity.

When our officials act, it is always in our name – and this is one decision that none of us would be proud to sign our names to. If we can fix it, then we must fix it, or, by default, admit to being coarse and shallow people, hiding behind coarse and shallow officials. The truth is we are a generous and idealistic society, whatever our shortcomings. If the media will simply give this matter the attention it deserves, we will find a suitable way to work it out.

We may be kidding ourselves that we are advancing as a culture, when all the latest technology seems to distract us from setting priorities. Can we imagine Native Americans behaving with such depraved indifference? In ancient Rome, withholding burial was the supreme punishment, because it extended the misery of their victims to the agony of their families. The despicable Khalid Sheik Mohammed claims we are a debauched society. The word comes from the Old French, desbauchier, for to scatter, disperse. What good is our information age if it dilutes our focus and disables our sense of control over our own government?

Whatever the actual cost of correcting this obscenity, it couldn’t come close to the savings that resulted from the astonishing around-the-clock bravery of those who cleared the catastrophic site months ahead of schedule. Just as we all share a long overdue moral obligation to care for those who were injured through their 9/11-related service, there is no getting around this obligation and we wouldn’t want to. This is one expense Americans will gladly accept.

We can all be part of the remedy. It is completely reparable if we come together and insist on the transfer before 9/11/2010. At the Twin Towers Alliance we will do our part by asking publications to reprint this piece and by always using the name Ground Hero instead of Ground Zero going forward, as was recently suggested by a 9/11 family member in an online forum. If more of us make a conscious effort to use “hero” instead of “zero,” perhaps there will be a noticeable shift in attitude and we will be reminded that there is an ongoing debt to be paid.

No one would say that moving those mortal remains out of a dump is too much trouble, but saying it costs too much money amounts to the same thing. Everything does not have a dollar sign attached and failure to act would be shameful — particularly when hundreds of those who perished died saving others. They did their duty and now we must do ours. In the aftermath of 9/11, the moral is clear: There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

(c) 2010 The Twin Towers Alliance | May Be Reprinted Without Permission

Dear 9/11 Family Member:,

The daily news show of RTL Dutch Television is currently looking for 9/11
families in New York who lost a loved one during the 9/11 attacks and are
willing to discuss with us the upcoming trial of the suspected terrorists in
New York. We are looking for both sides of the spectrum. We have spoken with
a mother who lost her son in the attacks who is in favor of the trial being
in New York and we are now looking for people who heavily oppose it.

RTL Dutch Television is the largest commercial broadcaster in The
Netherlands and part of the RTL group, Europe’s largest television network.
Our daily news show attracts about 2 million viewers daily. Our headquarters
are in the Netherlands but for the coverage of US Stories we have an office
in New York, from which I am writing this.

If you’d be willing to help in this matter, please contact me on the
following number 212-975-6484 or send me an email at producer@rtltv.us.

Thank you,

Nona Hurkmans

–
Producer RTL Dutch Television
524 West 57th street
Suite IFF G-1
New York, NY 10019
Tel. 212-975 6484
Cell. 917-406-9358
Fax. 212-975 7448
producer@rtltv.us
www.rtlnieuws.nl

Giuliani: Not America’s Mayor

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-menin/giuliani-not-americas-may_b_418008.html

Time and time again when elected officials attempt to make a point or show the American people that they are on top of things we always hear the phrase “The Buck Stops Here”Unfortunately the buck hasn’t stopped anywhere near any of our elected officials in recent memory.