'9/11 Didn’t End On 9/11,' Lawyer Who Has Dedicated His Life To Helping Survivors Says The Loss Continues

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The names of the victims of the September 11 terror attacks is still growing on monuments across the Hudson Valley.

A growing number of those who escaped a tragic end on that day have since succumbed to diseases related their time in and around Ground Zero.



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Marking the date offers a chance to honor the heroism, and remember the loss that came out of clear blue skies early that morning, but one lawyer who has, for 25 years now, dedicated himself to giving voice to the victims, both living and dead, there is still work that needs to be done.

"For the past six months, reporters have been asking me to comment on the '25th anniversary' of September 11th," Michael Barasch, managing partner at the Barasch & McGarry law firm said. "I understand why but I struggle with the word 'anniversary' because it makes it sound like 9/11 was something that happened and ended 25 years ago. But it didn't."

For the lawyer, and Scarsdale High School graduate, the story started on 9/11, but that story is still being written.

"September 11th brought loss we could scarcely comprehend," Barasch said. "And it was only the beginning. Hundreds of thousands of responders and civilians were exposed to 9/11 toxins. And since then, thousands have died from their 9/11 exposure. In fact, more people have now died from 9/11 related illnesses than those who died that day. That is why we say: '9/11 didn't end on 9/11.'"

Barasch's remarks came at moment that both reinforced his words, but also highlighted a surprising optimism in the sentiments. Most of those gathered lost loved ones as result of the terror attacks nearly a quarter of a century earlier, but tonight there was something to be celebrated.

The firm's Barasch & McGarry Charitable Foundation awarded scholarships to a generation that wasn't even born on September 11, but were touched by loss more deeply than most.

"We are enormously grateful to the 9/11 Museum. Its Visionary Leadership Council members reviewed dozens of scholarship applications and selected the six extraordinary college students who we are honoring today," he told families gathered on the 80th floor of 3 World Trade Center. "We wanted to do something meaningful for another part of the 9/11 community: An entire generation of young people –more than 100 million Americans were not alive on 9/11 ... We wanted to help those young people and remind the 9/11 Community that help is still available."

"While our firm had no role in choosing the recipients, I will admit that I had one hope: It was that they would select students from families across the 9/11 community, not only first responders, but also civilians," Barasch said. "And that is exactly what happened. The six students to whom we are awarding scholarships are the children or grandchildren of a Battery Park resident, a firefighter from New Jersey, an NYPD officer, an electrician, two office workers who were in the exposure zone. Six very different stories. But one 9/11 community."

In the days and weeks after the terror attacks there was a refrain heard loud and clear.

"Now, the American people have got to go about their business," then President George W. Bush said in famous remarks after the attacks. "We cannot let the terrorists achieve the objective of frightening our nation to the point where we don't—where we don't conduct business, where people don't shop. That's their intention."

As students whose hardest days were authored before their births, got a helping hand, and raucous applause from a community forged in a nation's unspeakable loss, it's clear that the terrorists did not win that day.

And it isn't just the young people doing their families proud. The glass models of a rebuilt World Trade Center complex show little evidence of the wounds in lower Manhattan that were open for more than a decade. One World Trade Center looms over the space like an act of defiance made of concrete and steel.

Barasch would later tell Patch, that there is a joy in being able to help to accomplish something similar for families, even as he stares loss and despair in the eye. He talks about that loss in personal terms, he lost close colleagues as result of 9-11-related diseases. He himself has fought prostate cancer related to his time in lower Manhattan.

"I lose two clients everyday to 9/11 illnesses," he confided. "Every day two people I have fought for are gone."

Barasch said that he is glad that he can help even if the work has its heartbreaking moments. Those families, he said, won't have to choose between medical bills, and mortgage payments, and even as he feels each and every death, he also feels the satisfaction of knowing that those left behind will have security, and dignity, if not, the comfort of their loved one's embrace.

Across the street from 3 World Trade Center, and far below the city skyline, there is a newly opened exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The Ripple of Service exhibit focuses on 25 years of acts of service in memory of and in reaction to the September 11 attacks.

The exhibit references Fred Rogers, the children's television personality, who famously suggested that in a crisis we should "look for the helpers." After 9/11, helpers came from every direction, the curated exhibit illustrates.

At the exhibit is a paper Phoenix literally rising from the ashes of Ground Zero. The papier-mâché sculpture titled "The Feathers of the Phoenix," is composed entirely of artwork from the children who attended America's Camp. The summer camp hosted the children who lost parents in the attacks every summer in the Berkshires for 10 years.

It's seems strange to feel uplifted during a day at the 9/11 Memorial, and listening young students who chose to honor the needless suffering of their parents or grandparents, but there is solace to be found.

That solace, however, doesn't shield museum visitors being reminded by a slew of more chilling relics, that those "ripples" started with an act of evil, that caused untold agony.

Barasch, whose firm helped bring the exhibit to life, is says he is glad to celebrate the humanity and even the victories, that have happened in the 25 years since 9/11, but the "helpers" still have work to do.

He explains that, for his firm, much of that work now involves letting people know there is help available, and in some cases dispelling misconceptions.

Barasch said he has met victims who think that help with their medical bills would mean taking money from first responders, but he notes that victim compensation fund doesn't have a cap on how many victims it can help. He also points out that it's not designed to be an adversarial system.

"They want to help all victims," he said.

Barasch said that many of the people who are eligible for that hard fought for help don't realize they are eligible. In fact, many victims of 9/11-related cancers weren't at Ground Zero, on Sept. 11, but were exposed in the weeks and months that followed as a premature "all clear" had office workers, student and residents returning to Lower-Manhattan while buildings continued to burn, and toxic particles saturated the air.

Commuters especially, might not connect their health issues to exposure in the weeks that followed the attacks.

Even if they're not sick, Barasch urges those who spent time in the illness and exposure zone south of Canal Street to register with the program. Each year that passes, he explains, makes it harder to prove that victims worked or lived in the zone. Those people may be fortunate enough to never get sick, and may never need help with medical bills, or may never have to face the prospect of leaving their families without financial support, but once they are part of the fund, that help will be there if needed.

"Now, is the time to let people know," Barasch said. "Because the media is going to pay attention after the anniversary."