Can They Dig Up Her Lungs To Search For Victims’ DNA Fragments?
For the First Time, New York Links a Death to 9/11 Dust (New York Times)
There’s a whole debate about the effects of the dust. I won’t get into that, other than to say that I strongly side with people who claim that the dust created by the WTC collapse had harmful potential. (otherwise, why are you supposed to wear a dust mask when sawing through drywall/gypsum?)
The interesting thing about this is that it raises the 9/11 death toll, by adding on someone who did not die that day and who did not die violently. This wasn’t a firefighter, or a plane passenger, some i-banker trapped in his 100th-floor office, or someone who jumped from 1,200 feet up. Her death is nonetheless tragic (equally so)… yet this creates a problem. A problem not of the dead, but of the living, grieving, and politicking.
The problem is, does she now gain official status as a 9/11 victim? Apparently, yes, as the authorities have increased the official death toll, classified her death as a murder, and have even recognized her passing on prior memorials:
Mrs. Dunn-Jones’s name was engraved on the Sept. 11 memorial in Staten Island. But when Mr. Jones tried to have her name added to the official list of Sept. 11 victims, Dr. Hirsch’s office rejected the request in 2004, saying there was insufficient proof.
The thing I’m curious about, which isn’t mentioned here at all, is now what are the other victims families going to say about including her name on the main memorial, at this later date? If you haven’t followed the tale thus far, you’d assume that no one would have a problem. It would be the human, compassionate thing to do. But if you have followed the story, you know that the “victims’ families” are unofficially “represented” by a small number of militant crows who have done nothing but interfere with the rebuilding and recovery process. (Recovery includes much more than digging up bone fragments under West Street) Their position has been oppositional on nearly everything memorial-related. Nothing will ever be good enough for them - in part, an extension of a horrible grief, but also shaped clearly from narcissism. Without any indication of their actual position, why do I get the feeling that they’ll fight to keep this poor lady’s name out of Ground Zero? Why do I think that they won’t think of her as enough of a victim to make the cut?
(My position is that she should be on the list, on all lists, but I have no sway on the matter)
This is the sort of ridiculousness that we’ve come to expect from many of the parties involved in reconstructing the World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial. I am quite thankful, though, that Governor Spitzer (and to a smaller extent, Mayor Bloomberg) have helped cut through much of the nonsense going on down there, and have actually started rebuilding. (For those of you who cannot see, there are now 10 construction cranes on the site, which means things are only going up from here - literally)