Land of the Free . . . Home of the Brave
From Gerald W. McEntee, President, and William Lucy, Secretary-Treasurer
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Hundreds of DC 37 staff members arrived at the union’s Lower Manhattan headquarters — just one block from the World Trade Center — while many of their colleagues were involved in election activities in other parts of the city. Members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000 arrived at the twin trade towers to work in state offices. Pentagon staff, across the river from the nation’s capital, were at their desks.
It was all business as usual until 8:45 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, when the first of four hijacked American commercial planes — carrying innocent pilots, crew and passengers — became weapons of mass destruction.
Most of us can recite this horrific turn of events by rote. It will be documented in the history books of our children, our grandchildren and generations to come.
REAL HEROES. For us, the 1.3 million members of AFSCME, there are union tragedies. We have five CSEA members who went to work that Tuesday in the World Trade Center who have not been heard from since. Two of our paramedics, Ricardo Quinn and Carlos Lillo, members of Local 2507 (DC 37), and New York City Fire Department Chaplain Rev. Mychal Judge, a member of Local 299 (DC 37), have perished. Many of us personally know some person, some family touched by this terrible day.
Amidst this senseless tragedy, there has been a rebirth of appreciation for working men and women.
Hundreds of firefighters perished, thousands more saved countless lives and kept the death toll from being even worse. There are more than 1,000 iron workers who volunteered from places like Virginia and Ohio and Illinois to help clean up Lower Manhattan. Scores of health care workers, including our Emergency Medical Technicians and paramedics from Local 2507 (DC 37), are there. Nurses care for survivors at area hospitals. The list goes on and on ... and this assistance and volunteerism will continue into the weeks and months ahead.
Americans now have a new understanding and appreciation for a heavy machine operator, or an EMT, or an expert in handling asbestos — the working people of this country.
They see and hear day after day how these men and women, just doing their jobs, have become real heroes. And Americans are proud of them and proud to be Americans.
UNION POWER. With this new sense of respect and solidarity, now is the time for AFSCME and other unions to go forth and make sure all workers are treated fairly. Now is the time to get decent wages, decent health benefits, retirement benefits, job security and job safety for these 21st century heroes.
We know the best way, the surest way to make certain that all workers have a decent share of America’s Promise — that they work so hard, so long and so diligently to maintain and now rebuild — is for them to have the power of a union behind them. So we must go out and help those who don’t. We must continue to organize the unorganized.
COMING TOGETHER. Yes, Sisters and Brothers, these are dark and tragic days. But these are also the days when countless everyday Americans are traveling from sea to shining sea and putting their lives on the line to help others. And these are the days when Americans are saying "thank you" to their working men and women. And these are the days when we all are pulling together — a diverse nation of diverse talents — and becoming once more indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
We must pray for the families of the victims and those who are injured ... those who were simply going to work on a Tuesday and never came home or came home changed forever.
We must continue to give blood, give money, give the labor of our hands and the sweat of our brows — but never give up on America because America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. And American workers help keep it this way.
God bless us all.
