Cyrus Dugger

Washington Must Act on ‘Human Disaster’

Washington must Act on ‘Human Disaster’

Daily News editorial
March 22, 2007

Serving with the Morris County, N.J., sheriff’s office, Jeffrey Endean arrived at Ground Zero on 9/11 when, he remembers, The Pile “looked like a war zone or a peek into hell.” It was both.

For two months, Endean worked in a landscape he described yesterday as “surreal” and “terrifying,” and soon breathing difficulties forced his retirement. “The coughing would be violent, with my eyes bulging,” he said.

Endean went to the doctor. He was misdiagnosed with colds and allergies, and it was only in 2005 that he began getting proper care through the World Trade Center health program at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He suffers from scarring and thickening of the lungs, a form of asthma called reactive airways distress syndrome, severe acid reflux, chronic headaches, posttraumatic stress disorder and more.

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“We could not stop the attacks, death and continued casualties of 11 September,” Endean told the senators. “You have the ability to stop the human disaster.”

He was right, and he could have gone further. From President Bush on down, the U.S. also has the responsibility to ensure that the thousands of men and women who responded to an act of war - and who are afflicted with conditions akin to Endean’s - are cared for.

It is a national disgrace that such an obvious truth bears restating at this late date, 2,018 days after the terror attack, but Washington, from Bush on down, has yet to make good on America’s debt to citizen soldiers who rose to the occasion when the towers fell. (keep reading)

Posted at 9:52 AM, Mar 22, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)