They Are Still Dying Down There

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Sidewalks with Tom Deignan

They Are Still Dying Down There

September 13, 2007

By Tom deignan

I WORK at a high school in Brooklyn. As the anniversary of September 11 approa-ched, it occurred to me that the 500 students who began a new phase of their life as high school students this year were in the third grade when the planes hit the towers that awful day. So, it’s a safe bet they have never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Or the sinking of the General Slocum.

After all, most adult New Yorkers do not recall these tragedies. How can you expect 14 year olds to recall these events which occurred nearly a century ago?

This comes to mind as the whole question of “9/11 fatigue,” which I wrote about last week, has risen to the forefront. Many believe we are moving away from 9/11 too soon. Others say that we will never forget.

Keep in mind that over 1,000 people perished the day the General Slocum steam ship sunk into the East River in 1904. Who would think a city could ever forget a thing like that?

As for 1911’s Triangle Shirt Waist fire, nearly 150 victims -– most young immigrant girls -– perished. Many leapt from the tall burning building in desperation, a gruesome forerunner to 9/11.

Of course, neither of these tragedies is on the scale of 9/11. We were attacked by a hostile enemy that day. This was no tragic accident.

But I would say there is a more important reason we should struggle to recall that day, even if it is human nature to let a tragedy such as this slip into the back of our minds. This is particularly true for Irish Americans.

First of all, people are still dying down there. I may be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone point out the fact that the two firefighters who died at the Deutsche Bank building were the 344th and 345th FDNY victims of bin Laden’s henchmen.

Then there are those who have contracted illnesses because of the time spent near Ground Zero. Just this week, a University of California at Davis professor named Thomas Cahill said that as many as 300,000 people could become ill because of exposure to the toxic debris.

Then, of course, there are those who have died in Iraq (approaching 3,000), Afghanistan and other conflicts directly related to 9/11.

Again, you may staunchly disagree with the presence of coalition forces in this region. But they are there because of what happened six years ago.

And please, don’t honor those insane conspiracy theories which have flourished on the web and have gotten some attention during the run up to the 9/11 anniversary.

The memory of one flawed but nevertheless accomplished Irish American –- John F. Kennedy -– has been dogged by misguided conspiracies. Let’s not mar the memory of the 9/11 workers by wasting our time analyzing photo frames and shadows in search of Bush and Cheney’s fingerprints.

Consider incompetence first, before going directly to the grassy knoll.

Do Irish Americans have a particularly strong responsibility to recall 9/11? I would argue yes.

It’s not to say this was some kind of Irish American event. True, if you look over the names of victims, it is jaw-dropping when you get to the O’s and the M’s, the sheer volume of Irish names: O’Neill, O’Connor, McNamara, McLaughlin. The FDNY and NYPD, of course, have profound Irish traditions.

But more importantly, the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic have shown that they know the importance of history, sometimes to the point that they seem unable to escape from it.

As those still dying because of 9/11 suggest, maybe we really cannot escape history.

How can I convey that to the 14 year-olds who stroll through the hallways of my school, not to mention the adults who say “enough is enough”?

Well, that’s the challenge, isn’t it?

(Contact Tom at tomdeignan@verizon.net)

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