One Lee's Summit, MO Response to TODAY'S Bush Visit

[graphixtech]

LEE'S SUMMIT CITIZEN REPUDIATES TAXPAYER FUNDED PRESIDENTIAL VISIT
TO LUXURY HOSPITAL AND CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE FUNDING OF MEDICAL TREATMENT
FOR 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS AND RESIDENTS

Lee’s Summit, MO -- 25 January 2007 --
On the dawn of a Presidential visit to St. Luke’s Hospital in Lee’s Summit, one resident is outraged by the political irony. “As a Lee’s Summit resident and a recent patient of St. Luke’s Hospital, I am appalled that President Bush has chosen to use Lee’s Summit and St. Luke’s East as a public relations podium for the health care crisis in America."

"Today Lee’s Summit and Jackson County taxpayers are being required to pay for extensive security surrounding President Bush's visit to Lee's Summit and St. Luke's East Hospital. If the CEO President truly wants to improve America's health care system, eliminating the OBSCENE profit margin of the health care "industry" is the place to start. The President's new health care proposal makes a mockery of the root causes of America's health care crisis and serves only to do further harm to to the shrinking middle class."

"Additionally, I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the St. Luke's Hospital in Lee's Summit. The patient care was outstanding, but the hospital is by no means representative of public hospitals across America. St. Luke’s East accommodations include having each room designated as a “private room” with two (plasma) televisions and a guest sleeper sofa standard in each private room."

"Furthermore, as a resident and taxpayer of Lee's Summit, Missouri I personally would much prefer that the exorbitant amount of public money spent on security for this political visit had instead been used for a health care issue that more accurately represented the compassion of the majority of Missouri citizens."

"Polls clearly show that the majority of Americans do not support the Iraq occupation. That politicians continue to ignore the will of the people is representative of a system that is broken. Savings from a tiny fraction of the Iraq invasion could be used to take care of our own infrastructure and citizen's basic health care needs."

"At Tuesday's President Bush's "State of the Union Address" there was one noteworthy attendee who represented an honorable class of citizens in urgent and desperate need of health care. Ceasar Borja Jr., was invited to attend President Bush's speech as a reminder of 9/11 workers who were stricken with a host of illnesses after exposure to toxic World Trade Center debris. Unfortunately, his father died just before the SOTU speech."


9/11 Officer Dies as Son Attends SOTU Speech
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/1/23/220845.shtml?s=lh

"WASHINGTON -- A former New York policeman died Tuesday night as his 21-year-old son prepared to appear at the State of the Union address to symbolize the desperate health problems of some Sept. 11 workers."
(more)"9/11 is not over. It didn't end in 2001. It is still affecting my father and numerous other first responders," he said.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

9/11: Toxic Legacy
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/toxiclegacy/index.html

"Within two weeks of 9/11 a disturbing analysis of the dust done by another agency – the U.S. Geological Survey – found it was extremely caustic, some of it as corrosive as oven or drain cleaner. When in contact with the moisture in people's eyes, nose throat or lungs it could burn tissue. The analysis of the dust was immediately given to the EPA, which did not release the data."
(more)
"Hugh Kaufman, a senior analyst at the EPA, says, "If there's a battle between economic interests and the health of firemen and policemen, it's a no brainer. The economic interests trump the health of firemen and policemen every time."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Large Study of World Trade Center Responders
Finds Persistent Health Problems in Many
60 Percent Still Suffer Respiratory Problems from Exposure to Environment at Site

For Immediate Release from The Mount Sinai Medical Center
September 5, 2006
http://fusion.mssm.edu/media/content.cfm?storynum=298




(what about their right to basic health care coverage, Mr. President?)