September 11 Responders

Bin Laden Award Money: Who Deserves It Now That Bin Laden Is Gone?

The US government offered $25 million after September 11 for the capture or death of Osama Bin Laden, and now that Bin Laden has been assassinated, the question is what should happen to the money.

Since no individual directly brought about the end of the Bin Laden hegemony, and since people in the military cannot be awarded the money ethically, since they were doing their duty as Navy SEALS, it seems appropriate that the money go to the September 11 responders, those firefighters and police officers and others who helped rescue survivors at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and who, in so many cases, suffered grievous injuries or illnesses.

It does not seem appropriate for the relatives of those who died to receive payments, as they have already been awarded financial damages.

It is proper that those who gambled their lives and health to help retrieve live victims and clean up the struck sites in New York City and Arlington, Virginia, over a period of months be thanked by financial payments that honor what they did, in the name of patriotism and nationalism!