IN THE AFTERMATH OF 9/11 SHE WAS MIA ON CRITICAL HEALTHCARE INITIATIVE
During the days, weeks and months following 9/11 the first responders, who risked their lives in lower Manhattan have become known to us in documentaries and films like Michael Moore’s "Sicko" as tragic heroes who sacrificed their health and sometimes their lives to find the remains of those who perished and to clean up the debris and rubble of the once mighty World Trade Center complex.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, EPA Director Christy Todd Whitman and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were MIA when steps should have and could have been taken to protect the health of these first responders. Giuliani, Whitman and Clinton have never been held accountable for this failure in leadership.
We may never know whether the tragedy of 9/11 might have been prevented had George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice et al been paying attention to the early warning signs or weren’t hell bent on finding a way to divert the human and financial resources of this country to smash Iraq and remake it in their own horrific image, Abu Ghraib and all.
But history will show that Senator Clinton and other U.S. Senators failed in their Constitutional responsibility to tamp down the war fever drummed up from 9/11 in spite of the warnings of Jim Webb, Wes Clark, Anthony Zinni and so many of us who called Senators to ask for a "no" vote on the Iraq war Resolution. Her "yes" vote remains a black cloud over the Clinton candidacy. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton along with the other presidential hopefuls (except for Senator Feingold who voted against the IWR) enabled Bush, ignoring the Levin Amendment which would have brought Bush back to the Senate for a Constitutionally valid authorization to use force. Those Democrats who voted "yes" failed in their leadership responsibility to stand up against what Wes Clark called Bush’s "catastrophic war of enormous proportions". .
But there’s another failure of Senator Clinton that has received very little if any coverage of her campaign. In the aftermath of 9/11, self-proclaimed healthcare guru NY Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton failed another leadership test. Senator Clinton was MIA along with NYC mayor, Rudy Giuliani and EPA Director Christy Todd Whitman in their shocking neglect of preventive health measures for first responders.
The mayor of NYC, the EPA director and the junior senator from NY failed to take the initiative to warn first responders of the dangers from the toxic brew that filled the air in lower Manhattan as they worked frantically to find people buried under the rubble and . then to locate the remains of those who had perished. These three politicians, more than perhaps any others at the time, were in a position to work together to establish a preventive care system to provide state of the art industrial respirators for first responders who unnecessarily risked their health in lower Manhattan.
Wall Street feared that people might not return to work for fear of the health risks of the ambient air and there were public statements by the EPA and others that the air was safe. That was a calculated lie and it took common sense and leadership to stand up, tell people the truth and see to it that a system was in place to mitigate the effects of asbestos and benzene and other toxins in he air.
It was only common sense that the air was dangerous. Two of my children visited New York in the weeks following 9/11. I asked them to use masks when they visited ground zero.
Once healthy firemen and policemen in the prime of their lives have suffered irreversible lung damage. Those who have not already succumbed to their devastating injuries, struggle to breath to get through the day, a lung transplant their only hope to survive their injuries. They are owed accountability and access to care.
Instead, Giuliani, Whitman and Clinton failed to take the leadership responsibility to protect New York first responders and have not been held accountable.
It is ironic that Senator Clinton portrays herself as an authority on health care when she was MIA when it counted.
If this isn’t what leadership is all about, then what is?.
In the interests of full disclosure, to those who have not read my comments in support of Barack Obama, I volunteered as an Obama precinct captain during the Texas primary. As many here know, I was a strong supporter of General Wesley Clark’s candidacy. When Clark announced that he would not run but threw his support to Hillary Clinton, he asked his supporters to stay with him. General Clark had spoken eloquently to us about principles over expedience as the source of our legitimacy. Democratic principles are what General Clark believed were the key to our place in the world and the source of our leadership and security. I believe that Barack Obama not Hillary Clinton comes closest to the standards that General Clark spoke so eloquently about. Because of my respect for Wes Clark, I did make an effort to consider Senator Clinton, but in the end, my concern about Senator Clinton’s leadership failure both on the war and her lack of initiative to protect her constituents working at ground zero, left me with no choice but to consider other candidates. Barack Obama’s appeal to our highest democratic principles and his inspiration of a young generation of voters and political activists persuaded me he was the one to bring us together to do what is necessary to move onto a sustainable, democratic path.