Not Different, Just Better

Anybody with a facebook account is probably aware of the upset over the status of the upcoming ceremony for the anniversary of 9/11. Rather than explain things myself, I’ll just quote it here:

Due to “lack of room,” NYC Police Officers, Port Authority Police Officers and FDNY Firefighters are not “invited” to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero. Funny - they weren’t invited on that day in 2001, either - they just “showed up” and became our heroes. Please re-post if you think they belong MORE than the politicians who are invited

First off, I want to say that it is incredible, commendable, and relieving that Americans still care about 9/11 and the heroes who responded to the tragedy enough for this to become so endemic on the social network. However, a quick google search reveals that there is some misinformation being passed around here, as is so often the case with viral posts. The reason there’s no room for the New York emergency services at the ceremony is because of the massive number of people who were injured or who lost loved ones in the tragedy. It isn’t that there is no room for them because of the presence of thousands of politicians, but because of the thousands of victims. In fact, one of those sources goes as far as to quote that “…only a limited number of lawmakers from the Tri-state area will be allowed to attend.”  Even if organizers didn’t invite a single politician, there still wouldn’t be room for all the emergency responders-and that wouldn’t be fair either. It’s already been decided that another ceremony will be held for the heroes you mentioned. The planning certainly was handled incorrectly-I don’t understand how simultaneous events could have taken place, and I think Mayor Bloomberg’s response to things was pretty insufficient. However, the issue doesn’t call for this kind of flak given the circumstances. It definitely calls for flak-but informed flak, please.