Opinion

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05.05.03  

Should We Accept What’s Offered or Make a Change?  

Today was a warm sunny day in New York and I found myself taking the subway downtown for a walk through Battery Park.  

As I walked through Battery Park, I stood at the sight of the eternal flame and the globe that was removed from the World Trade Center Plaza and placed in its new resting place. Battered, bruised, scraped and even punctured with holes from flying debris, its stands there in all whether to serve as a monument for all those that passed that day.  

I stopped and thought for a minute. Was I right in voicing my opinions so strongly about my injuries and the change it has made to my life, when there are so many people that are no longer with us?  

Staring at the globe my mind was transported back to that Tuesday morning walking across the plaza at 7.55am . Just days before I had lunch there with my buddy Bob, eating our Burger King Whoppers. We laughed, remembering the first time I saw it and thinking it had some thing to do with football; I thought it looked like a helmet! Oh well!  

I am still here to look at this thing, this icon of a day not so long ago. I stared at tourists taking their pictures. I stared and I thought. There I found my answer. In my heart and mind I am right.

We have some serious problems with aspects of that day. Not just with the agencies set up to help but with the on-going problems that terror attacks cause many years after the act. There are disturbing news stories creeping in from all media sources.  

In one split second an event started a chain reaction in my life and I have no way of telling what will be the outcome. All that I had worked for has drizzled away and I am left with daily pain and uncertainty.   

Today I wanted to get some sunshine and to feel alive, but my physical body is not always that willing. All I can do is go home for my medications, my support collar and a welcome futon to lie on.  

What makes me angry is the how things are turning out in 2003. Many agencies quickly rushed to our side to help in the immediate aftermath. It was amazing at the speed it all came together in the fall of 2001. But is it still there? I am hearing about more and more people that are losing out.

As one person stated in my guest book; he was amazed how the US became ‘one’ but sorrowful how quickly that was forgotten.  

I am not regarded as injured ‘badly enough’ (I suspect the same for many others). What is ‘enough?’ I did not report my injury for some weeks until it interfered with my life and work. How can the term ‘enough’ be quantified and applied to people. Is there a numerical scale; one to ten?  Every one is unique and should be treated that way.  

Am not alone in my thinking ? I doubt it. I know of many people who were injured and now have terrific financial and personal stress.  It’s time to raise your voice.

Is this a democracy where we have the right to question our politicians and government of our distaste? Is that not what people have died for? Should we not preach our beliefs, upholding the memory of those gone. Or should we push some to one side?  

What is a rule or regulation? It is either a straightforward direction; ‘Keep of the Grass’ or an interpretation, like many aspects of the law. Rules and regulations are in some ways guidelines to live by. The majority of them are there for our protection, our safety and quality of life. But when they interfere with our quality of life, it then as citizens we must speak up.  

So I challenge the rules of the Victims Compensation Fund and the Special Master. I respectfully ask them to address individual circumstances and help people.  

People’s lives and families and existence and their livelihood have taken the strain. I know, I speak to many people each week who have contacted me. Ask them what happened to the ‘American Dream?’ Stop treating hard working people as statistics and demographics of your rules and treat them as real people. I know the fund is doing everything it can for families that suffered the worst loss, but there are many more that are in ruin.  

It’s time to start asking questions. It’s time to voice your opinion for what you want and what you believe in. I cannot anymore keep my head in the sand; I have seen everything I had worked so hard for just slip away. I am not standing for it.

 -DRS