December 13, 2021

 

 

Dear Senator Schumer,

We are the children who lost their parents on September 11th, 2001.

The bond that was broken twenty years ago was irreplaceable. All of us have marked such incredibly sad milestones in our lives without the presence of our parent at our side; we have been molded into adults shaped out of unimaginable tragedy.

We grew up with the false belief proffered by you that our parents (and our unspeakable loss) would "Never Be Forgotten." Sadly, those words have not been met or backed by real action from politicians like you.

Many of us have followed in our parents’ footsteps by serving in the Military and/or as members of the FDNY and NYPD. We learned to always have each others' backs, to never leave a fellow soldier behind, and to be men and women of our word.

We earnestly struggle with the notion that 20 years post-9/11 not one individual has been prosecuted and held criminally accountable for our parents' murder. We wonder how can that be?

It seems implausible coming from a nation of such a sophisticated justice system that our path to justice always seems to be thwarted at every turn by our own government-- whether it be a request for documents to hold co-conspirators accountable in civil court actions or our unanswered calls for help with regard to enforcing our outstanding civil court judgments against lethal state sponsored terrorists.

When Congress finally corrected the heinous unlawful exclusion of 9/11 Widows and Children from the USVSSTF, your words to us were that "we could rest a little easier at night."

But that simply would not be the case.

Parity and equity for the 9/11 Widows and Children has not yet been achieved. And the painful harm of our wrongful exclusion from the USVSSTF continues. Our families are irrevocably ripped apart by the decisions made by a callous Special Master and an apparently oblivious Congress.

We are asking you to stand by your promise to us; the promise that you made to us last year that you would ensure that the Lump Sum Catch Up Provision would be fully funded expeditiously so that payments could be made to the 9/11 surviving widows and children.

We have made numerous requests to have a Town Hall to speak with you directly about the Lump Sum Payment, and our requests have been downright ignored by you. Our attorneys tell us that you are "tired of 9/11 issues and the 9/11 families and that you've grown weary of helping us."

Is that truly the message the Majority Leader--and Senator from NY--wants to send to the children of the murdered?

Unlike you Leader Schumer, we do not have the luxury of growing weary or tired. Unlike you, we cannot ignore the damage that has been brought against us by terrorists or our own Department of Justice and its Special Master. We must live with our pain and loss every day. Maybe most poignant of all: we cannot wish away the terrorist attack that stripped us of the opportunity to have a full life with our moms and dads.

We respectfully request that we not be ignored by you any longer. We are this nation's largest group of children who suffered through a terrorist attack that took place on our nation’s soil, and we are also the group who has received the least amount of transparency, accountability, restorative justice, and restitution for our parents' murder.