Write 250 words per day minimum

I just saw the most disturbing documentary about the health problems people who responded to 9/11 are suffering. Fire, police, EMT’s, contract cleaners, city workers, and residents who cleaned up after the disaster were exposed to chemicals and toxins (like asbestos)in the dust they had to work in and clean up. From that first day, they suffered breathing problems, asthma, reduced lung capacity, coughing, burning eyes, chronic sinusitis, stomach problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, and cancers. Those who are lucky enough to have health insurance have been denied benefits. The government promised funds to help with health expenses but then cut funding off because it wasn’t used quickly enough. These people RISKED THEIR LIVES to help others. They rushed in to an extremely dangerous situation, without question for their own wellbeing. SHAME ON THE U.S. Government, George Bush and Congress, EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for saying the air quality at the site was safe, greedy insurance companies, doctors who are too afraid to acknowledge that these responders’ lungs are filled with debris, that cancers are manifesting themselves, that the health problems are REAL. As naive as I am, it’s unthinkable, I simply can’t understand how the U.S. administration and everyone else involved can hide behind their hollow declarations about 9/11’s heroes while they sit back and watch them suffer and die with no financial assistance for their health care or for their survivors. This can be a sick, twisted, greedy world. Someone has to stand up for these people. How do I, as one small voice, help?

to try to capture this time. I’m going out for the first time in…months, many of them. For dinner with friends and then to a play. I am so excited, my teeth are clenched and I’m quivering! (That sounds creepy but it’s only pure sweet, innocent anticipation). If I could do cartwheels you couldn’t stop me!

Don’t have Word, too scared to blog. Excuses! I could use paper & pen (and I have, just not daily). I’m undisciplined. My friend’s relative has written every day for over 60 years. My friend and I agreed to write every day for a month. It’s an absurdly small (2 line) minimum so we can’t possibly say we don’t have time. I think how great it would be to reminisce looking through old journals. Then my bad angel pipes up and yells “Never leave a paper trail!”