Source: International Association of Fire Fighters
General President Harold Schaitberger has criticized a Michigan newspaper for publishing an insulting and insensitive editorial about the New York fire fighters’ response to the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Schaitberger called the Oakland (Michigan) Press editorial an "outrage and a slap in the face of every fire fighter." The IAFF president said the editorial "desecrated the memory of the 347 fire fighters who gave their lives that day in service to their fellow citizens and their country."
The editorial by Oakland Press editor Neil Munro used the words "foolhardy, childish, inadequate, and cowboys" in his editorial criticizing the actions of New York fire fighters on 9-11. He described the response as "macho madness" and said the fire fighters "acted like a mob."
Schaitberger said he was appalled that the newspaper would publish such an offensive editorial as its official opinion. "The tone of the editorial was downright nasty, particularly since it was targeted at dead men who cannot even defend themselves against the attack," he said.
"These men died doing something that mattered," Schaitberger said. "You can gripe from afar all you want about how the New York fire fighters responded to the most horrific disaster to ever hit our nation, but the fact remains, they did their job in the face of incomprehensible adversity, they did it well, and thousands of innocent people are alive today because they lived -- and died -- as heroes."
