Open Your Eyes

Open your eyes so you can see through the eyes of an Ironworker.  It is the day after 9/11/01; our cleanup began intensely and without rest.  The place that some died to build is the same place we find people killed.  We have to survive!  There is a chance someone is alive, the sky is black and the debris makes it hard to see my partner who is right beside me.   There are scaffolds dangling overhead, holes in the buildings, the water is to my knees and it is hard to breath.  The surrounding buildings are unstable, it is raining, and I am landing loads of steel on the trucks to be hauled out.  It was our job to interpret what pieces of steel could be moved without causing further hardship for the police and firefighters as they conducted rescue and recovery missions.

Open your eyes, so you can see through the eyes of an Ironworker.  Ironworkers who were tired cold and would not give up.  The only chance these workers felt they had was to grit their teeth and bear it.  God bless the Ironworkers of Local 40 who risked their lives in our countries most desperate time of need.  Open your eyes so you can see through the eyes of an Ironworker the effects of 9/11/01 the day after.

 

God Bless,

(Ironworkers Local 40)

Tommy Harris Jr.

Kendall Harris

Charlie Lyons

Claude Sheppard.