At the end of our last fund-raiser, I said that I was going to hold one each quarter. Here we are in the second quarter, and now is as good a time as any.

A lot has happened since the last time we did this. Some of it good, some of it sad, and some of it even sadder.

Congressmen Jerrold Nadler of NY recently asked, “Who made decisions, if any, that resulted unnecessarily in a lot of people getting sick?”

As we all know here, and for those who don't, it was the White House that pressured the EPA's Christie Todd Whitman, through Condoleezza Rice's office to inform 9/11 First Responders, and New Yorkers that their air was safe to breathe, and their water was safe to drink.

On March 17th The News-Times reported that Dr. Robin Herbert of Mt. Sinai hospital said, "many of us found that hard to believe." Many Americans do as well. They went on to say that "others did believe it and began walking around the site without protecting their lungs." Now as a result, 1000's of people are sick, and over 100 have died.

Their reasons for doing this? "Competing priorities" such as national security and "opening Wall Street." Apparently Rep. Nadler doesn't have access to the same information we do.

On April 20th, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lawsuit against Christie Todd Whitman for her actions regarding her statements pertaining to the air and water conditions. They decided the "government's interest in returning New York to normalcy following the attacks should protect it from lawsuits alleging that the government made false statements about air quality." They said what she did wasn't "conscience shocking." It was reported that this ruling, "could spell trouble for New Yorkers suing the Environmental Protection Agency and its former chief for saying that sooty Lower Manhattan air was safe to breathe after the Sept. 11 terror attacks." This "outraged" everyone, and rightfully so.

Michael Bloomberg, "killed a study on the city's response to the 9/11 attacks after his lawyers said they did not want a report that cited any missteps or dealt with "environmental" or "respirator issues."

Guess who else isn't innocent in all of this? That's right, you guessed it. Presidential hopeful, and Neocon front-runner, "America's Mayor," Rudy Giuliani. Thousands of pages of legal testimony showed that Rudy's administration "never meaningfully enforced federal requirements that those at the site wear respirators." They also warned companies working on the pile that "they would face penalties or be fired if work slowed." Also, "according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers." VOTE RUDY!

I'm not going to get into the battles taking place right now in regards to funding for our heroes, and New Yorkers. $500 Billion spent on the Iraq War, you would think they could throw a few $Billion their way.

Doesn't this make you sick? Doesn't this make you angry? It's absurd!

As I said, some good has happened. Because of Rosie O'Donnell's devotion to America, millions of Americans were given their first exposure to the problems our heroes are facing. As a result of that episode, the FealGood Foundation received over 100 emails, and over $1000 in donations. I know the media has been covering it more, however, they're not asking the right questions obviously.

Clinton and Nadler said they are going to hold hearings into what happened. I don't trust either of them, and I expect it to be nothing more than a show. However, if it somehow educates people, or brings more exposure to their problem, then it might be a good thing. We shall have to wait and see. Can you believe Christie Todd Whitman initially refused to testify?

Michael Moore's new movie "Sicko" has brought a lot of attention to what's going on. Say what you will of him, but he does manage to stir the pot as they say.

Since our last fund-raiser, three more heroes have passed away. Phillip Rooney a city transportation worker, Detective Kevin Hawkins, and Detective Robert Williamson. My condolences to their families.

Not long after his appearance on "The View", Vito Valenti went into the hospital. His condition is deteriorating everyday. If you can, send him a word. I'm sure he would appreciate it.

The President and founder of the FealGood Foundation, John Feal, is about ready to donate his kidney to Paul Grossfeld. He also recently got married. Congratulations John and Marzena.

Last time, we donated equally to the FealGood Foundation and to the GearUp Foundation. This time, I wanted to do something a little different. Because John and Vito are on the board of the FealGood Foundation, they can not receive any of the money the FealGood Foundation gets. I thought it would be nice this time to divide the amount of money into three. One check for the FealGood Foundation, one check for Vito Valenti, and one check for John Feal.

Our heroes are still hurting, and need our help. Please give what you can, and thank you.

Jon Gold