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I received the following e-mail in response to my sending out Connor's letter re the Nat'l FF Day e-mail campaign. I cannot believe this man's arrogance 
:
"To Carla Smith of Dallas Texas.
Since [email protected] is not a recognizable name, and since I could find nothing in aol's directory for Rockville Centre that comes even close, I leave it to you to pass this message on. If you want to. Otherwise, let me know Conner Geraghty's aol moniker. TKS CFE
Dear Conner,
My sympathy to you and your family. It is always hard to lose a parent, no matter how it happens. That is the point that must be remembered, and that, I am afraid to say, the firefighter families seem to forget.
As a result of the World Trade Center disaster -
At least 4,000 children will no longer see their father
At least 4,000 wives, husbands, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces will never see their loved ones again.
Don't you think they deserve a national day of remembrance?
Your father and your family are among the lucky ones.
You have a support team ready to step in and help.
You have a community which honored your Dad. Even a Mayor and a Governor who attended his funeral (or if they didn't, it was because they were attending a funeral service for another firefighter or policeman).
Your family will have the financial support, not only from the contract under which your father worked, but from the large sums collected by firefighters throughout the United States.
Have you thought about the poor Mexican immigrant worker earning minimum wages washing dishes in Windows on the World or bussing tables?
Many could not even afford a funeral
And if they did, no dignitaries attended their services
Their families will have no death benefits.
No one is collecting money for their survivors
Unlike you, they will probably lose their homes and definitely have to do with less.
And you know what's worse? Many may have been here illegally and working under somebody else's name, so that noone will even know they're dead.
How would you like that? In comparison, you are lucky.
No, Conner, as sorry as I feel for you, I think this whole fireman thing has been overdone
I, for one, have become calloused to the overblown wailing and hero worship.
Your father took the job of fireman knowing what he was getting into.
Your father's union regularly plays the "hero" and "danger" and "for others" cards during labor negotiations and has reaped a good pay, good fringe benefits, and the ability to retire on conditions that us ordinary folks can only dream about.
The fact that he died while fighting a fire is part of risk he knew he was taking and getting paid for.
You ask for a National Firefighters Day.
But do you know that your father's fellow firefighters rejected such an offer.?
Not only did they reject a service honoring your father, but they kicked Mayor Guiliani in the teeth in the process.
And why?
Because your father's union leaders wanted to stand on your father's bones to make a political statement.
When I see some humility among the firefighter community I will support your quest
Absent such an attitude, I am afraid that the existing arrogance will only be perpetuated by the creation of a National Firefighters' Day, and that I will not support.
In the meantime, I have no doubt your father was a good man about whom you have many happy memories. And that is how it should be. You should, and I hope you will, celebrate your father because he was your father. Period.
With my best wishes
Caspar F. Ewig" ([email protected])
Mr. Ewig:
I cannot believe your attitude. Pay attention here, son, because apparently, you haven't done so up to this point:
1. NO ONE has said, or even implied, that the effort to establish a Nat'l FF's Day is to the exclusion of any memorial effort on behalf of the thousands of victims.
2. NYC's leaders, and the rest of us, honor the fallen rescue workers - not JUST the firefighters - because while the office workers were scrambling to get OUT of the WTC, the rescuers were going IN, because we EXPECTED them to 'fix' it.
3. Please remember the "support" and financial benefits were NOT originally OFFERED to the firemen. Due to the relative danger of their jobs, compared to the rest of ours, they were able to bargain these into their contracts. I am just a bookkeeper, and my salary is still 28% HIGHER than a firefighter's starting pay. Since the duty is quite hazardous, and they willingly take those risks, I hardly find these benefits to be on the same level as 'perks.' Just what do you risk at YOUR job, for the benefit of YOUR community? A papercut? Bumping your heel on the casters of your chair?
4. As for the "poor immigrant workers," just what did the firefighters DO to make them poor, or immigrants? If they are here legally, then like all the other families of victims, the Salvation Army and Red Cross and Hollywood's stars have collected HUNDREDS of MILLIONS for them. If they are here illegally, and cannot apply for any of these death benefits, again I ask, just how is that the firefighters' fault? Since you are making so many illogical, apples-to-oranges comparison, the whole argument you made on this subject is just moot.
The rest of your letter deals with your opinion on a political matter, and as such is of little concern to a 14-year-old like Connor. I cannot believe you really think you needed to unload all these snide, hateful words on a young man whose father died while helping people survive the worst tragedy this country has ever seen. It is apparent you simply wanted to pontificate on the subject of unions, and that is subject-matter better suited to the Editorial page of your local newspaper (let me spell that out for you: here's a quarter, call someone who cares).
Carla Smith
[ 11-21-2001: Message edited by: Carla Smith ]
:"To Carla Smith of Dallas Texas.
Since [email protected] is not a recognizable name, and since I could find nothing in aol's directory for Rockville Centre that comes even close, I leave it to you to pass this message on. If you want to. Otherwise, let me know Conner Geraghty's aol moniker. TKS CFE
Dear Conner,
My sympathy to you and your family. It is always hard to lose a parent, no matter how it happens. That is the point that must be remembered, and that, I am afraid to say, the firefighter families seem to forget.
As a result of the World Trade Center disaster -
At least 4,000 children will no longer see their father
At least 4,000 wives, husbands, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces will never see their loved ones again.
Don't you think they deserve a national day of remembrance?
Your father and your family are among the lucky ones.
You have a support team ready to step in and help.
You have a community which honored your Dad. Even a Mayor and a Governor who attended his funeral (or if they didn't, it was because they were attending a funeral service for another firefighter or policeman).
Your family will have the financial support, not only from the contract under which your father worked, but from the large sums collected by firefighters throughout the United States.
Have you thought about the poor Mexican immigrant worker earning minimum wages washing dishes in Windows on the World or bussing tables?
Many could not even afford a funeral
And if they did, no dignitaries attended their services
Their families will have no death benefits.
No one is collecting money for their survivors
Unlike you, they will probably lose their homes and definitely have to do with less.
And you know what's worse? Many may have been here illegally and working under somebody else's name, so that noone will even know they're dead.
How would you like that? In comparison, you are lucky.
No, Conner, as sorry as I feel for you, I think this whole fireman thing has been overdone
I, for one, have become calloused to the overblown wailing and hero worship.
Your father took the job of fireman knowing what he was getting into.
Your father's union regularly plays the "hero" and "danger" and "for others" cards during labor negotiations and has reaped a good pay, good fringe benefits, and the ability to retire on conditions that us ordinary folks can only dream about.
The fact that he died while fighting a fire is part of risk he knew he was taking and getting paid for.
You ask for a National Firefighters Day.
But do you know that your father's fellow firefighters rejected such an offer.?
Not only did they reject a service honoring your father, but they kicked Mayor Guiliani in the teeth in the process.
And why?
Because your father's union leaders wanted to stand on your father's bones to make a political statement.
When I see some humility among the firefighter community I will support your quest
Absent such an attitude, I am afraid that the existing arrogance will only be perpetuated by the creation of a National Firefighters' Day, and that I will not support.
In the meantime, I have no doubt your father was a good man about whom you have many happy memories. And that is how it should be. You should, and I hope you will, celebrate your father because he was your father. Period.
With my best wishes
Caspar F. Ewig" ([email protected])
Mr. Ewig:
I cannot believe your attitude. Pay attention here, son, because apparently, you haven't done so up to this point:
1. NO ONE has said, or even implied, that the effort to establish a Nat'l FF's Day is to the exclusion of any memorial effort on behalf of the thousands of victims.
2. NYC's leaders, and the rest of us, honor the fallen rescue workers - not JUST the firefighters - because while the office workers were scrambling to get OUT of the WTC, the rescuers were going IN, because we EXPECTED them to 'fix' it.
3. Please remember the "support" and financial benefits were NOT originally OFFERED to the firemen. Due to the relative danger of their jobs, compared to the rest of ours, they were able to bargain these into their contracts. I am just a bookkeeper, and my salary is still 28% HIGHER than a firefighter's starting pay. Since the duty is quite hazardous, and they willingly take those risks, I hardly find these benefits to be on the same level as 'perks.' Just what do you risk at YOUR job, for the benefit of YOUR community? A papercut? Bumping your heel on the casters of your chair?
4. As for the "poor immigrant workers," just what did the firefighters DO to make them poor, or immigrants? If they are here legally, then like all the other families of victims, the Salvation Army and Red Cross and Hollywood's stars have collected HUNDREDS of MILLIONS for them. If they are here illegally, and cannot apply for any of these death benefits, again I ask, just how is that the firefighters' fault? Since you are making so many illogical, apples-to-oranges comparison, the whole argument you made on this subject is just moot.
The rest of your letter deals with your opinion on a political matter, and as such is of little concern to a 14-year-old like Connor. I cannot believe you really think you needed to unload all these snide, hateful words on a young man whose father died while helping people survive the worst tragedy this country has ever seen. It is apparent you simply wanted to pontificate on the subject of unions, and that is subject-matter better suited to the Editorial page of your local newspaper (let me spell that out for you: here's a quarter, call someone who cares).
Carla Smith
[ 11-21-2001: Message edited by: Carla Smith ]
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