Reluctant Spokesman

It took a grieving 21-year-old, mourning the loss of his World Trade Center cop father, to finally shame President Bush yesterday into helping other forgotten heroes of 9/11.
The White House ended years of foot-dragging by budgeting $25 million to help ailing Ground Zero workers, making the announcement just before Bush is to meet today with Ceasar Borja Jr., the son of a cop who died after breathing the toxic air there for months.

"I want the President to know that he has to take care of these people, because many more will die," Borja told the Daily News yesterday in his Bayside, Queens, home, moments after getting the news. "Any sum of money is a help, and I just hope that it continues."

New York's lawmakers have relentlessly pounded Bush to fund World Trade Center-related illness for years.

I give the New York lawmakers, including Senator Hillary Clinton credit for keeping this issue a priority. I've been following the issue for some time now, and I feared that the government would treat the Ground Zero workers no better than the former Soviet Union treated the liquidators who gave their all to quell the radioactive fires at Chernobyl in 1986.

Borja is a reluctant spokesman. He didn't want to be in this position, but his father's sacrifice, subsequent illness and death was a life changing event that thrust him into the spotlight and now has the bully pulpit to demand more aid to other workers affected by their service at Ground Zero.

That said, the Bush bashing isn't entirely well placed. Congress is responsible for appropriations, and they have not done a sufficient job in setting aside aid. New York City and New York State have similarly passed the buck on the aid (hoping someone else will pick up the tab), and the insurance fund set up to assist those affected by Ground Zero illnesses has been obstinate in disbursing funds, even five years later.

The $25 million set aside is a good start. It is going to be the tip of a very large iceberg as thousands of other workers at the site may yet come down with ailments relating to their service at Ground Zero. There is also the question of ailments by those downwind of Ground Zero, both in Battery City and across the bay in Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill. As the Daily News points out:

"We fully expect to be out of funds by the end of this summer," said Dr. Jacqueline Moline of Mount Sinai Medical Center's World Trade Center health program. "There are 34,000 patients that are supposed to be treated with the $25 million, and that's not going to go very far."

Health experts estimate the hospital needs $250 million a year to treat sick workers, and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has called for $1.9 billion in funding over several years.

The list of those killed as a result of 9/11 will continue to grow as more succumb to ailments relating to their service at Ground Zero following the attacks.