I’ve been kind of mulling this one over all day to day. It really is quite a conundrum. On the one hand, if ever there was a concept of honored dead and living heroes, its those guys. The risked everything (and in far too many cases, lost everything) to save others and I can think of no nobler thing for humans to do.
On the other hand, part of what we want to accomplish is to do it better if, God forbid, there is a next time. Part of that needs to be taking a critical look at what happened the last time and the things that went wrong or could have been improved.
Not sure what you do about that conflict, but I sure would love to see people behaving more sensitively and with greater decorum.
Was Giuliani a hero? Did he rush into any buildings to save anyone? Or did he just sit there and make speeches after the event and pretend like he did anything important.
Frankly, it sounds to me like the hecklers aren’t criticizing the rank and file emergency personnel but the people at the top who didn’t give them adequate equipment, failed to solve communications equipment problems and basically let the emergency infrastructure fall into disrepair.
Actually Rudy G did a lot on 9/11. I am no fan of the man but the way he handled things that day is impressive.
Not all of responding to the attacks involves running into a building. There were tons of decisions to make. Things to authorize that only the Mayor could do and he did it.
Everything has a price. Maybe buying those better radios would have cost a few station closings. Maybe some fire fighters would have been laid off to buy the others the better radios and if that was the case people would be bitcing about how more fire fighters would have helped save more people.
It’s not like the money for better radios was used as tp in Gracie Mansion.
And when it happened we were praising the hell out of the emergency preparations NYC had and how well the situation was handled. Rudy was hailed as the best ever for leadership in a crisis. Now we heckle them for all but causing this in the first place. First it was a tragedy; now it was grossly preventable.
How quickly we turn… :dubious:
There’s already a Pit thread about this, and I’ve had my say there (“So much for heroes” is a kinda vague thread title).
I was here for the 1993 bombing, I was here for 9/11, and I was here for last summer’s blackout, and I am getting sick and tired of NYC’s complete inability to deal with disaster evacuation and interdepartmental communication.
I’m wondering, though, where some of the personal responsibility is in training to react in a disaster on the part of all citizens (and this isn’t directed at you, personally, Eve, but in general, as a reply to your concern about disaster evacuation). The Federal government, as well as pretty much every local fire department, has a program in place called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), that is free or at a very low cost to anyone over 18 years of age. The training entails: [ul]
[li]Disaster Preparedness[/li][li]Disaster Fire Suppression (including not only using fire extinguishers, but fire hoses, as well)[/li][li]Disaster Medical Operations (including basic First Aid and CPR certification)[/li][li]Search and Rescue Operations[/li][li]Triage[/li][li]Disaster Psychology & Team Coordiniation[/ul] I have posted more detailed information in this thread in the GQ forum, where there are links to follow to find the CERT programs in your area. I’d highly recommend checking them out, as this is an excellent program. As I said in that thread, these firefighters are working their asses off all the time to be prepared and to help the community prepare. They offer on-going training drills and recertification in first aid and CPR (I just got recertified myself this past weekend), and having worked with them through this program, I can also assure you that they are constantly training themselves, practicing rescuing people (my husband and I have both been volunteer victims in several drills they’ve conducted) from various scenarios. They aren’t just sitting around the firehouse watching TV, eating bon bons, waiting for alarms to go off and then running around like chickens with their heads cut off because their radios aren’t working.[/li]
Our local departments are coordinating their efforts with other groups, such as CVAN (Community Volunteer Alert Network) and TARA (Torrance Amateur Radio Association), which utilizes CERT volunteers and HAM operators amongst others, to open lines of communication in the event of emergencies where power and phone lines might be out of service. A cursory check shows that there are similar programs nationwide, including New York.
No offense intended, but I grow a bit weary at all the finger-pointing (which these hearings are apparently doing a LOT of), the lack of personal responsibility and the lack of acknowledgement of what our emergency services personnel (firefighters, police, EMTs, etc.) are actually out there doing to help save our lives if og forbid it becomes necessary. It would behoove us all to be as trained and prepared as possible so that we can help save ourselves and others around us, and possibly be able to lighten the burden on the emergency personnel who are called out to respond.
Would these be the same people who refused to provide tax dollars with which to maintain and purchase the equipment necessary?