By The TimesLedger
Congress is about to appropriate $15 billion in direct assistance and loan guarantees for the airlines industry. This will be money well spent. Without the bailout in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some of the nation’s largest airlines would be forced into bankruptcy.
Unfortunately, as it stands now, this money will do little to help the thousands of people who have been laid off by an industry that was already in trouble before Sept. 11. According to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), as many as 3,000 people who once worked at Kennedy Airport have gotten a pink slip. These layoffs will take a devastating toll on the families in southeast Queens where the airport is the largest employer.
There is a sense of betrayal here. Families living in this part of Queens have paid a heavy price for owning homes near the airport. They have had to put up with the noise from aircraft and highways congested with airport traffic. In return for this sacrifice, they got jobs. It is only fair that Congress, which is rightfully coming to the aid of the airlines and their stockholders should also come to the aid of the airline and airport workers. They, too, are victims of the terrorism that has shaken this nation.
Like the people who owned businesses at Ground Zero, these men and women also have mortgages and rent to pay and families to feed. Without help from Congress, they will lose everything.
Meeks and the New York delegation on Capitol Hill must fight to see that the men and women who once earned their livelihoods and Kennedy and LaGuardia are not forgotten. Congress is right to take strong action to keep the nation’s airlines healthy. But Congress must also make sure that 3,000 working-class families survive this crisis.
Editorial: ‘Victims double’
As Americans and as New Yorkers, we have all been deeply affected by the attack on the World Trade Center. That terrifying image of the twin towers bursting into flames when the hijacked jets struck and then crumbling to the ground has been forever etched into our memory. We cannot look west to the Manhattan skyline without being reminded of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
But there is a group living among us that has been victimized twice – first by the terrorists and then by those who have used this tragedy as an excuse to justify their own mindless bigotry.
Speaking of the Muslims and Arab-Americans who live in Queens, Nusrat Alam, a student at Francis Lewis HS, said “we’re probably victims double. Not only did we lose relatives, but now we are getting hated on.”
Although there are Arab-Americans living in Queens who question U.S. policy on the Middle East, we know of no ethnic group or community that has not condemned Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and the terrorists who carried out the attack.
It should not be necessary for everyone who prays at a mosque or wears a turban and a beard — and that includes the Sikhs — to make a public show of their loyalty to this nation. And yet many groups feel compelled to do just that. Fear is the enemy of reason and logic. Even New Yorkers who see themselves as fair and open-minded have confessed to battling irrational fear and anger. They have been told repeatedly that Islam and the Koran condemn the killing of the innocent. But a visceral fear persists.
We cannot control what we feel and what we fear. We can control how we act on those feelings. At a time when freedom and democracy are being challenged from without by the Taliban and other religious fanatics, those who cherish freedom must be vigilant in protecting the rights of all Americans.
