Son of 9/11 hero pleads for Bush meeting

Hours after learning that his father Cesar Borja, a retired New York Police Officer from Bayside and September 11 hero, died from pulmonary disease, his son Ceasar Borja Jr., attended President George W. Bush’s State of the Union Address and expected to hear the president speak about health relief for Ground Zero workers. However, he heard no such statements.
That is why the following day, on Wednesday, January 24, Borja Jr. requested a meeting with the President to speak with him personally about the needs for medical care for other Ground Zero workers.
“I want a meeting with the President to make the case directly about how important these health programs are,” Borja Jr. told The Associated Press.
Borja, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD died on Tuesday night, January 23, at Mount Sinai Medical Center awaiting a lung transplant after doctors diagnosed him with pulmonary fibrosis in the fall of 2006.
Following the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, Borja spent countless days and nights working as a volunteer at the Ground Zero site and developed a cough in 2003 that never went away and eventually cost him his life.
After learning about Borja’s story, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton invited Borja Jr., along with other September 11 first responders to accompany her and Congressmember Carolyn Maloney to Washington D.C., for the State of the Union.
“As we mourn the loss of Cesar Borja and keep the Borja family tonight in our thoughts and prayers, we are reminded that thousands like Cesar Borja desperately need help, and I hope that the President in his budget will provide the funding needed to provide the health care our 9/11 heroes need and deserve,” Clinton said.
Bush failing to mention relief aid for workers during the address also miffed Maloney, who has been fighting for a federal relief package for September 11 workers.
“President Bush has even talked about steroids and baseball in a previous State of the Union address, but he doesn’t seem to think the well-being of our 9/11 heroes is worthy,” she said. “They are dying, as the tragic case of Cesar Borja again illustrates.”
Currently, Cesar’s wife Eva, sons Ceasar Jr., 21, Evan, 16 and daughter Nhia, 12, are planning the arrangements for their husband’s and father’s funeral.