NEW YORK ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ Once again, the city will pause for four moments of silence to mark the attacks that killed more than 2,700 people. Family members will lay flowers where the twin towers fell, and the names of victims will be read. But much will be different on the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, after tense arguments about where to hold the ceremony, whether a presidential candidate should be allowed to speak and whether it’s still fitting to put on such a large-scale commemoration…. But the city’s firefighters could raise several issues. They are among thousands who say they suffer persistent respiratory problems after inhaling dust from the trade centers’ collapse. Two firefighters died just last month in a blaze at a skyscraper that was damaged on Sept. 11. And firefighters and several victims’ family members are furious that Rudy Giuliani, the city’s former mayor, who has spoken every year at the ceremony, is doing so on Tuesday as a Republican presidential candidate. Giuliani, who has made his performance in the months after the 2001 terrorist attacks the cornerstone of his campaign, said last week that his appearance was not intended to be political.
Here we are again. Another opportunity for Rudy Giuliani to use 9.11 as a prop to burnish his credential as the “security and safety canddate”, the Republican most likely to be able to protect us from them evil, nasty isalmofascists who hate us for our NFL Sunday Ticket packages. Giuliani may feel a connection to 9.11- after all, he was the Mayor of New York on 9.11, and he has made a career out of reminding all of us of his selfless heroism on the terrible day and the days and months after. Yes, he was the public face of a city and region in mourning, but does merely being the Mayor of New York and stumbling around Ground Zero with news cameras in his mug constitute leadership and heroism? And should we really be expected to be OK with a candidate so willing to shamelessly exploit 9.11 for political gain?
New Yorkers, and indeed all Americans deserve to be able to grieve as they see fit. We shouldn’t have to sit idly by as a politician willing to crassly use 9.11 to burnish his Presidential prospects insults our intelligence and our grief. If Giuliani wants to use 9.11 to prop up his Presidential campaign, then he should be equally willing to address those who willing to call his reign of error for what it was. Until, and unless, Giulian displays a willingness to do that, Ground Zero should not be used as just another campaign stop on Giuliani’s quest for the White House
