Clean up workers suffering from lung disease don’t think he’s a hero.
Although Giuliani constantly blames the EPA for misleading him about air quality at Ground Zero, the city had its own test results which outdoor tests showed hazardous levels of asbestos up to seven blocks away, he decided not to make the results public. EPA chief, Bruce Sprague, sent an October 5 letter to the city complaining about “very inconsistent compliance” with respiratory protection. Sprague, who wrote the letter only after unsuccessful conversations with Giuliani aides, likened the indifference in a subsequent court deposition to sticking one’s head “over a barbecue grill for hours” and expecting no consequences. An internal legal memo to the mayor estimated early in the cleanup that there could be 35,000 potential plaintiffs against the city, partly because rescue workers were “provided with faulty or no equipment (i.e. respirators).” Bechtel, the major construction firm retained by the city as its health and safety consultant, urged it to cut the exit-entry points from 20 to two so they could enforce the use of respirators and other precautions, just as was done at the Pentagon, but Giuliani ignored the recommendation.
And that’s just part of the problems he has with the real heroes of 9-11.
Well, I have to agree with you, this has always been a puzzlement to me. Anybody would have known that air was bad, so I don’t understand how Whitman, et al. said it was OK.
But, in fairness I don’t know why the fireman and workers didn’t insist on the proper equipment. They’ve got a union and know how to be vocal.
It might just be something to chalk up to their crazy bravery.
I know a guy who was a fireman and who worked there, but I’ve never discussed this with him. I doubt that I ever will. That is just not my relationship with him.
But as I said, from long before 9/11, I feel I owe a personal debt to Giuliani. I know that he saved my beloved home town from ruination.
So what you have said, how he treated his wife (dreadfully), his indulgence of the gay lifestyle, etc., etc. etc.
When I put them on the scale he still comes out on top.
Although I really am still po’d at how crappy a campaign he ran for president.