Leave it to Jon Stewart to so eloquently and reasonably bring light to important issues. He’s like your smart, cool friend who has worldly interests and shit but only seems to want to make the world better. That’s why an important voice in our news culture was ripped from under our millennial feet after he retired from the Daily Show a few months ago.
But he’s back. Albeit a little more grizzly looking.
Stewart appeared on his successor’s show to bring attention to an issue which in theory we all believe to be essential–the well being of the 9/11 first responders who were made sick with cancers and pulmonary disease from the toxins that were omitted after the towers fell.
Congress passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in 2010, which provided health care funding and compensation for emergency workers who were sickened by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and their aftermath. Problem is, that a portion of that act is set to expire after Sept. 30, and the rest of it will expire by next October unless it is renewed.
In the captivating eight-minute clip above, Stewart summarizes:
“These first responders, many sick with cancers and pulmonary disease, have had to travel at their own expense to Washington, D.C., hundreds of times to plead for our government to do the right thing.” “The only conclusion that I can draw,” he added, “is that the people of Congress are not as good a people as the people who are first responders.”
Hopefully Jon’s influence will draw attention to this important issue and get our heroes the much deserved support we owe them.