Click here for the original story by Corky Siemaszko of NBC News
Excerpt
...The after-effects continue to be felt by those who stepped up and helped to clear the rubble of the downed towers. More than half of the 105,000 people enrolled in the WTC Health Program have developed 9/11-related illnesses, The City news organization reported. “I talk to dying and sick members every day, but there’s not that many left,” said Tom Frey, 56, a former New York City police detective, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma linked to the time he spent at the World Trade Center site and the Staten Island landfill after the 9/11 attacks, and now needs oxygen around the clock to stay alive. “It’s like we’ve been forgotten. But when the bell rang, we did what we had to do.”
But for all of those still feeling the raw wounds, there are millions of Americans alive today for whom 9/11 is something they first encountered in history books.
Arin Parsa, the 14-year-old founder of the Teens for Vaccines advocacy group, said [on the deep bipartisan divide during COVID] his generation has no memory of Rudy Giuliani being lauded as “America’s mayor” for his leadership in New York City after the [9/11] attack. His generation can’t imagine that the U.S. Capitol — the site of the Jan. 6 riot by angry Trump supporters bent on overturning Biden’s election victory — was also where Republican and Democratic lawmakers stood together on the steps and sang “God Bless America” after 9/11, Parsa said, citing another global event that has taken precedence.
"The Covid-19 pandemic," he said, "absolutely is and continues to be our generation's 9/11."
Additional thoughts by Arin (not covered in the story but sent in the original email to NBC)
"With disinformation escalating, shocking politics over masks, we teens have been living in perpetual fear amidst death and suffering for so long, not to mention sheer helplessness, as we largely have no rights to consent to vaccines nor enforce safe schools. And yes, regrettably, 9/11 is history for many of us...Frankly, we barely have the capacity to think about an external terrorism threat when misguided/profiteering adults within our own country have been eroding our hopes for a safe and happy life...All that said, as a perpetual optimist, I hope our country can come together in solidarity on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 to end this terrible pandemic just as we rebuilt our country after the harrowing events of 9/11. Onwards and upwards."