Letter to the Editor - NY Daily News
Letter to the Editor:
Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Nadler’s message: “The heroes still waiting for their due: Thousands of 9/11 first responders have dire health needs”, March 14, 2010, was meaningful and moving to us, the parents of fallen first responder firefighters. Our sons, true heroes and dedicated members of the FDNY, rushed into the towers to save the lives of others and likely never knew that their radios failed. Just as the survivors have sought assistance through the Courts, and now seek the support of the American people through the Congress, the families of the firefighters lost on 9/11 deserve their day in Court.
In December 2003, thirteen families of fallen firefighters asked the Federal District Court to allow an investigation of the 9/11 radio failures to be pursued through the judicial system. The Judge rebuffed our request, saying instead, that by submitting a claim to the Victims’ Compensation Fund, we would waive our rights to maintain “any” civil action because our sons had died in or around the WTC towers on September 11, 2001. Although we argued that the hastily written and passed law that established the VCF was intended to provide alternative relief for those seeking to attribute blame for the attack and crashes at the WTC towers, Judge Hellerstein only allowed us a Hobson’s choice. Both Congresswoman Maloney and the author of the VCF, the late Congressman Henry Hyde, filed Briefs as amici curiae in support of our position when the case reached the United States Supreme Court, that the Congress had created an ambiguity in drafting that proved to be fatal to our quest for the answer to a simple question, “Why were the FDNY firefighters the only first responders without radios that worked in the towers?”
The Firefighter Families’ United amendment to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act that we have asked its sponsors to consider merely allows us to re-instate the case filed in December of 2003. If a Judge and jury should determine anyone to be at fault and award damages, the amendment provides that we contribute an amount, equal to the amount we were awarded by the Special Master, back to the VCF. In short, all we are asking is for a determination of accountability and responsibility, so that future first responders’ families will not have to suffer the unimaginable abyss to which we have been relegated; when the Congress votes this week, we should be allowed our day in Court.
Sincerely,
Firefighter Families’ United
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