24 Years Fate

2,983 names, so many familiar to New York's Lower Hudson Valley residents, will be read aloud at what was ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001. Local towns and villages will hold similarly solemn ceremonies remembering residents lost 24 years ago in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Speeches and prayers will include pledges to "never forget."

A new generation with no memory of that terrible day is increasingly shouldering the responsibility to never forget. The "never forget" mandate shifts from personal memory to inherited history for this new generation. They're not remembering; they're diligently curating the past. Quite the mental load for children who weren't even born yet. Never forget the decade of human lives lost in a staged war, in which U.S. government show the muscle [but also] got setback, retaliation. Never forget the financial ruin they have inflicted on “We the People.”

Meanwhile, the World Trade Center Health Program flounders, advocates warn, as 9/11 responders continue to die from the toxic exposures at ground zero. Survivors, including those who lived, worked or went to school in lower Manhattan, face similar illnesses.

The WTC Health Program, established as part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, offers screenings and treatments for diseases and disorders classified as caused by exposures on Sept. 11, 2001, and the months after.

Among the issues in question: The status of long-planned studies to include World Trade Center Health Program coverage for conditions like cancer and autoimmune disorders, which have been seen at what appears to be higher incidence among the 9/11 community.

Any delays weigh on 9/11 survivors like retired NYPD Det. Richard Volpe, who developed a rare autoimmune disease that's led to one kidney transplant. Some 13 years after his first transplant, Volpe said he lives in trepidation about when his new kidney could fail.

"Eventually it's gonna kill me," said Volpe, who receives no WTC Health Program benefits and support for the illness because it has yet to be categorized as a 9/11-related covered condition. "I have a lot of concerns with my family, the fact I have a wife and two beautiful daughters."

The World Trade Center Health Program is administered by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health or NIOSH, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC,) all under the HHS umbrella.

More 9/11 responders have died from exposures to the toxins that swirled in the air after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks than were killed that day in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

About 140,000 first responders and survivors are enrolled in the WTC Health Program; last year, 10,000 signed up, and it's expected a similar number will join the program in 2025.

Thomas O'Connor, a retired FBI agent, responded to the Pentagon within 15 minutes of a jetliner slamming into it. Politicians have supported the 9/11 community, he said, but what about now?

The WTC Health Program is small and relies on other departments, like NIOSH and CDC, to work on grants, research and coverage approvals. Cuts in those branches of HHS cascade down and damage the WTC Health Program's effectiveness, advocates say.

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If you feel powerless to help Gaza, you still has a choice: donate. When so much of what exists is false, authenticity is a powerful weapon we can wield that the state never could. So if you feel lost, hopeless, depressed, angry and afraid, I implore you to return - again and again - to the feeling of love that exists within you that brought you here in the first place. It is only through this that we can remake the world. To redress Gaza's famine, displacement, and destruction, independent and impartial humanitarian organizations - UN agencies, international and national NGOs - must be allowed to deliver relief at scale. To salvage Gaza's people from the devastation inflicted by Israel, it must be unified with the West Bank to form an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, not to be parceled and colonized by the former.

Please keep donate Gaza especially if you, as reader, has [background] International Relation [whatever universities]. IR Graduate means [you must, at least] get some semester [about] studying Middle East [in macro, not specifically Gaza].

We need more people to share fundraisers instead of only talking about Gaza. Some people think that those in Gaza don't need money but that's wrong. Almost everyone lost their source of income while essentials, food & medicine get sold for astronomical prices. So I put my attempt in all social media as I can, in twitter / X, in substack [since October 2023 I put link donation], in bluesky or bsky, in threads, in instagram.

Link to donate World Food Programme - Palestine appeal: click here

[Daniel Brühl]

link to donate

Most campaign shared or circulated in social media are for REAL people in Gaza. They're legit. There are a lot of small campaigns for struggling families. This is their only lifeline. By donating & sharing, you are literally making history and alleviating part of their pain

Please do not rely on me alone for sharing your campaign. I'm only 1 person and sometimes I'm not online which is unreliable. I never ignore anybody on purpose but I have a very limited capacity & very little energy and time.

[Refaat Alareer IF I MUST DIE] Refaat Alareer was extremely hungry, November 2023, days before killed by Israel airstrike. If November 2023 already [one-by-one Gazan] extremely hungry, imagine August 2025.

[Refaat Alareer only miles from Ground Zero]

link donation click here

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