WTH? Technical 'snafu' cancels conference call on 9/11 Health Bill

Last week I wrote about an anticipated - and much advertised - conference call set to be held on the 24th where 9/11 First responders, and others, could "weigh in on whether those who got cancer after being exposed to 9/11 toxins ought to be compensated for their illness."

You can read more on that here.

Today, comes this turn of events:

Sick 9/11 Responders Turned Away from Zadroga Hearing After Technical Snafu

January 24, 2012 | By Julie Shapiro, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN — The federal government postponed a highly anticipated public hearing on whether the new $2.8 billion 9/11 health fund should cover cancer — after a technical snafu prevented people from calling in to testify.

Dozens of sick first responders turned out in person to Tuesday afternoon's meeting of the World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee at the New York City Police Musem, traveling from as far as Long Island and New Jersey to make the case that the federal government ought to pay for their cancer treatment.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency in charge of the meeting, was forced to cancel and sent the first responders home after trying unsuccessfully to get the conference call system to work, people who attended the meeting said...

There is much more here, and the First Responders quoted in the article don't mince their words. And neither should they.

As each of the comments attached say, in various way: Once again, our responders are told to wait...and this: How many more responders will pass away before they have a meeting???

Enough, already. It is now loooooong overdue for the various levels of government to quit treating our First Responders so shabbily (I'm being polite!) It is now long past time for our First Responders to have ALL their 9/11-related illnesses recognised and covered; illnesses that they live with, and die from, because of their selfless actions on 9/11 and in the days and months that followed.

Shame on all the government bureaucracies who continue to play politics with these men and women's lives. Enough waffling about needing more studies, more input.

As quoted above: How many more responders will pass away before they have a meeting???

My regular readers KNOW what follows.