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In this Week's Issue

Upcoming Events

Nov 20, 2005
Third Annual Joey Doyle Football Sunday
To benefit the Joseph Doyle Memorial Scholarship Fund
Time: Starts at 12:00 pm
Location: KJ's Ale House, 18 Nelson Ave, Staten Island, NY... Visit Website

Nov 26, 2005
The 3rd Annual Michael McHugh Memorial
Basketball Tournament

All are welcome to play...featuring an NYPD vs. FDNY game
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: Albertus Magnus High School,  Rt. 304 Bardonia, NY
Donation: $5.00 adults; kids free
Contact: Michelle at (845) 627-1807 or Jimmy at (845) 947-7224

November 18, 2005

Dear Families and Friends,

As Thanksgiving approaches, all of us at VOICES wish you and your family a peaceful holiday. We recognize holiday celebrations can be difficult for many of you as your families gather together this coming week.

Last year, many of our members shared ideas with us that they found helpful in coping during the holiday season - one was to reach out and help others who are in need. We would like to spotlight a wonderful organization, “Family-to-Family”, that is working to bring food and comfort to people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Started in Westchester, New York in 2002, Family to Family sends packages of food and home supplies from one family to another in a less fortunate area. They have focused their efforts on Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas since Katrina devastated the area in September. We encourage you to visit their website, www.family-to-family.org, to learn more about their program. We support their mission of building relationships between families and communities by sharing the basic essentials of life. VOICES is happy to promote this fine program.

The VOICES office will be open Monday - Wednesday next week and our social workers are available to talk with individuals who may need individual consultation. Please feel free to contact our office if we can be of any assistance at (866) 505-3911.

Warm Regards,

Mary Fetchet


 

The Third Annual Michael McHugh Memorial Basketball Tournament

When: Saturday, November 26th at 12:00 pm
Where: Albertus Magnus High School, Route 304, Bardonia, NY
Donation: $5.00 for adults, children are free
Contact: Call Michelle at (845) 627-1807 or Jimmy at (845) 947-7224 for more info

Join the friends and family of Michael McHugh for a full day of basketball. All are welcome to play, and be sure to watch the FDNY vs. NYPD game!

For a complete listing of all upcoming memorial events, please click here.

Please click here to send us information on your memorial or foundation event. The information will be posted on the VOICES website and included in upcoming e-Newsletters.

 

 

9/11 Memorial Dedicated in Milford, CT

 

A memorial in Milford, Connecticut to three local victims of 9/11 as well as all those lost in the Pentagon and Flight 93 attacks was unveiled on Veterans Day. Milford Mayor James Richetelli noted that the monument, with delays and changes, took three years and the combined efforts of more than 75 individuals and businesses to complete. "I’m so proud of the community and all the people who made this happen," he said at the moving dedication ceremony. "It’s beautiful," said Betty Ann Miller, mother of WTC victim Michael Miller, who is quoted in a New Haven Register article about the memorial. "It was very appropriate to have the three plaques," she added.

 

PHOTO: James Miller watches as his wife, Betty Ann, places a white rose in front of Milford’s Sept. 11, 2001, monument during a dedication ceremony Sunday behind Town Hall. Aaron Flaum/Register photo

 

WTC Memorial Will Cost $800 Million say LMDC Officials

 

The estimated total cost of the World Trade Center Memorial and Museum as well as the planned cultural space has grown to $800 million. The estimate has grown from an initial $500 million because of increased construction costs, according to LMDC board member Stanley Shuman, as quoted in a New York Post article. The private World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is raising money to develop the memorial quadrant, which will include: the memorial and museum, a cultural building that will house a visitors' center and 9/11 exhibits, and a performing-arts complex. The Foundation recently said it had raised $101 million so far and announced this week that it will step up fundraising next spring with a nationwide ad campaign. The international ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day, whose other clients including Apple Computer Inc., McDonald's and Sprint/Nextel, has volunteered its services to create the ads, according to a WTC Memorial Foundation Press Release and an Associated Press article. LMDC President Stephen Pryor attempted this week to assure the public that everything can be accomplished on time. "There is a concerted effort at present among all the parties - inclusive of the state and the city and all of the rebuilding partners - to ensure that we fulfill the plans that we've set out together: memorial and cultural,” Pryor said in a recent New York Times Article.

 

 

Best Wishes to Marcos Hartenstein, VOICES Webmaster

VOICES wishes the best of luck to VOICES webmaster extraordinaire Marcos Hartenstein, who moved to Spain this month. Marcos is responsible for the design and maintenance of the VOICES website as well as the development of the VOICES e-newsletter. We are indebted to Marcos for his dedication and commitment to the organization and providing the best web-based services possible to our membership. Although all of us at VOICES are saddened to lose a good friend and valuable member of our team, we wish Marcos and his wife Florencia the happiness and success in their new home.

 

9/11 Public Discourse Project Releases Third Report Card

The 9/11 Public Discourse Project released its third report card on the status of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations Monday, giving the government low marks for securing nuclear materials abroad and alleging the detainee abuse scandals have turned more Muslims against the U.S. The former 9/11 Commissioners did praise the government for attempting to eliminate some of the roots of extremist activity by fighting terrorism financing and integrating the Arab and Muslim world into the global trading system. However, the third report card, like the first two, is largely critical of both the Bush Administration and Congress, according to a Reuters article.

The Commissioners also stated that the government was not doing enough to keep nuclear, biological and chemical weapons out of terrorists’ hands. They cited an agreement reached last February by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure nuclear materials as a step in the right direction, but noted that much remains to be done to secure loose enriched uranium and tactical nuclear weapons, which can easily be transported. “Preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction must be elevated above all other problems of national security [because] it represents the greatest threat to the American people," the PDP members are quoted in an Associated Press article.

The report card also noted with dismay the international political fallout from detainee abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the Guantanamo detention camp, and at secret sites around the globe. The Commissioners expressed concern that aggressive interrogation methods undermine America’s reputation as a moral leader and potentially breed increased anti-American extremism and terrorism. "The United States must define itself in the Islamic world," said commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton, as quoted in a USA Today article. Otherwise, "the extremists will gladly do the job for us."

Click here for a summary of the PDP’s third report card and read statements from Commission Chair Tom Kean and Vice Chair Lee Hamilton on the PDP website.

Government accountability office critical of Cargo Safety

Two issues important to the PDP were also in the news this week: air cargo safety and intelligence reform. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report last week that criticizes the Transportation and Safety Administration for failing to make progress in inspecting cargo shipped on passenger planes. According to the GAO report, last year, about 6 billion pounds of cargo -- a quarter of the cargo shipped by air in the United States -- was flown aboard passenger airplanes. The report charges that the TSA has not taken the initial step of conducting a risk and vulnerability assessment. "Uninspected cargo is a risk to air passengers," Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays (R) is quoted in an Associated Press article Thursday. VOICES’ founding director Mary Fetchet joined Shays at a press conference in May to support a stronger inspection program. (Read article from cnn.com)

In response to the critical report, TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said the agency recently required airlines to triple random inspections of cargo, hired 100 cargo inspectors and is testing new security technology. Some critics, notably Congressman Ed Markey, who co-sponsored tough inspection legislation with Shays, say efforts short of full inspection are not enough. The TSA objects to full inspections, saying it would cost the government $3.6 billion over 10 years and could delay cargo shipments, according to a recent USA Today article. Click to read an executive summary and the full text of the GAO report.

Intelligence Reform Ineffective, says 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman

John Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy and a Republican member of the 9/11 Commission and PDP, harshly criticized the reorganization of America’s intelligence services, saying it has not proceeded according to the Commission’s recommendations. Writing in a Washington Post OP-ED on Wednesday, Lehman charges: “Instead of the lean structure recommended by the commission, with a small but powerful staff based on just three deputies (one each for foreign, domestic and military intelligence), the administration reached all the way back to the McNamara years to create a huge new staff to sit on top of the old and still bloated bureaucracies.” According to Lehman, these new layers of bureaucracy have not fixed the intelligence collection and analysis problems that allowed the 9/11 attacks to proceed, and have perhaps made them worse. “Reform requires inspiring leadership, bold vision and, above all, decisive action. We have not seen it,” Lehman wrote.

New York Loses Money for 9/11 First Responders

$125 million budgeted for the mental and physical heath needs of first responders at Ground Zero has been taken back by Congress. The last-ditch effort of a bipartisan coalition of New York Congressional representatives was unable to protect the money, but they have promised not to give up entirely. The money was originally requested by President Bush in 2002 as part of a $20 billion recovery package, but Bush asked Congress to take the balance of $125 million back this year because it has yet to be spent. The money will instead be used to plug holes in the Health and Human Services Department (HHSD) budget for fiscal year 2006.

A rare bipartisan alliance defeated the HHSD budget bill on Thursday, possibly putting the $125 million back on the table. But according to a congressional staffer contacted by VOICES, it is unlikely to be included in a renegotiated final appropriation. New York officials now hope to salvage the money for Ground Zero workers in an emergency spending measure expected later this year for Hurricane Katrina recovery, or other legislation. "We will try hard in the coming weeks, but ultimately Congress will have something of a black eye over this," Congressman Vito Fossella (R, NY) is quoted in an Associated Press article.

VOICES believes it is unconscionable to short-change the brave rescue and recovery workers who selflessly answered the call on 9/11. We know from experience that 9/11 first responders are still suffering significant mental and physical trauma from their experiences. Many of these problems are chronic and require ongoing care. It is important to let our public servants know that this money is necessary, and we urge you to contact your representatives in support of the New York Delegation. The first responders put themselves in harm’s way to help us and deserve our support in their time of need.


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Copyright © 2005 Voices of September 11th.  All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Voices of September 11th (“VOICES”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization:
Promoting public policy reform for prevention, preparedness and response to terrorism
Supporting and advocating for all those impacted by September 11, 2001 and other terrorist attacks
Fostering improved relationships with all countries confronting terrorism