Remember All The Heroes

Despite the impression created recently in the media, Police Officer Cesar Borja Sr. was at the perimeter of Ground Zero for 200 hours over 18 days from December 24, 2001 to April 28, 2002 according to NYPD overtime logs.
During those hours, he was within the zone of exposure to the dust that formed during the destruction of the Twin Towers. The removal of the debris pile continued to fill the air with dust for many months around Ground Zero.
Borja’s son Ceasar Jr. did not misrepresent his father’s heroism. He and his family - mother, Eva, brother, Evan, 16, and sister, Nhia, 12 - buried their husband and father following Borja Sr.’s death at the age of 52 from a painful lung disease. They did not ask for money! They did not ask for sympathy! They were not out for personal gain - instead they just wanted Cesar’s death to mean something.
His son and family just wanted to make sure that none of those who toiled in or around Ground Zero in the hours, days and months following the tragic events of 9/11 are forgotten. All of those volunteers and professionals who helped with the recovery from the terrorists attacks should be included in Mount Sinai’s World Trade Center treatment program and their care and expenses should be paid for by the federal government.
Ceasar Borja Jr.’s mission was to get that word out - because his father was not in any program. Borja Sr. developed a cough in 2002, went to private doctors who diagnosed him first with asthma and later with allergies and treated him for both. It was five years after 9/11 that Borja Sr. was finally diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, an irreversible scarring of the lung tissue which caused him to suffocate on January 23.
When asked why he pushed to see President Bush face to face, Ceasar said, “I’m doing this to show that 9/11 didn’t end in 2001, it’s still going on in 2007. People still need help. There are children only five years old with inhalers - I do it for them. I do it for the fallen heroes, not just the falling, but the fallen. They should always be remembered, honored and given elite medical attention.”
The president heard Ceasar’s plea and allocated $25M in the current budget to fund the exact kind of extended, comprehensive medical treatment that Borja sought.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a report that showed that more than five years since 9/11, the first responders, residents and workers of lower Manhattan and their families are still suffering medically and mentally from the aftermath of that tragedy. Bloomberg then called for full funding for the treatment of those that are still carrying the physical and mental wounds of 9/11 in their everyday lives.
We agree with Ceasar Borja, President Bush and Mayor Bloomberg.
We must not forget a single victim or volunteer, a single first responder - no one! They put themselves in harm’s way and they deserve our support now and forever.