The 9/11 memorial park that John Feal helped build is not far off exit 59 on the Long Island Expressway, about 50 miles northeast of Ground Zero.
asserted
Feal → help → Zero
It abuts a busy intersection in an unremarkable part of Nesconset, flanked by a gas station, a takeout joint, and a strip mall parking lot.
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It → abut → station
The memorial itself sits on a cozy acre of grassy land nestled by pear trees, thoughtful flowered landscaping, and custom-built seating courtesy of a local Boy Scout troop.
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memorial → sit → troop
The park is especially nice in the evening, after the traffic dies down, the kind of space you might seek for a few moments of contemplation about irreparable loss.
uncertain
you → die → loss
The memorial’s design is three panels, 63 feet long and 6 feet high, faced with polished granite.
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design → face → granite
The names of almost three thousand 9/11 responders are inscribed in tightly spaced rows from top to bottom on both sides, and it reads like a ledger recording debts to the dead.
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it → inscribe → dead
Not long ago, the panels ran out of room for new names, setting off a scramble among board members to find additional space in time for the 25th anniversary of the attacks this September 11th.
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panels → run → attacks
The founders of the Nesconset memorial, whose official name is 9/11 Responders Remembered Park, claim it is the first space in the country honoring those whose lives were cut short from illnesses linked to their work at Ground Zero.
uncertain
lives → claim → Zero
These often fatal consequences continue, so the number of those honored keeps increasing.
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number → continue → those
“I don’t think any of us fathomed how many names were going to be on this wall,” Memorial Architect Mark Mancini said.
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Mancini → think → wall
Dedicated on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it has been maintained through private donations and local volunteers.
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it → dedicate → donations
Nesconset and the surrounding Long Island communities have many 9/11 responders, perhaps because of historically affordable housing, and, as longtime resident and Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy put it, “firefighters follow firefighters and cops follow cops.”
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cops → surround → cops
Memorial construction was mostly done by volunteers, including the pro bono work of a nearby architectural firm.
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construction → do → firm
It is a project born from the simple desire of a local community to raise up the people lost and those still dying of 9/11 toxic dust.
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It → bear → dust
The memorial board is composed of a firefighter’s widow, two 9/11 responders, and several community members.
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board → compose → widow
Along with police and firefighters, the board includes responders who have historically been overlooked for recognition in state and federal memorials.
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who → include → memorials
They include, for instance, already-retired firefighters who came to help during the rescue and recovery, and non-uniform volunteers, tradesmen, and professionals, such as sanitation, construction, plumbers, electricians, ironworkers, bricklayers, and medical personnel.
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who → include → sanitation
And those who died from PTSD-related suicides.
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who → die → suicides
For Feal, the Nesconset memorial has become a touchstone for his advocacy work in protecting responder health care.
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memorial → become → care
“After a traumatic event, two things usually happen: advocacy or conspiracy,” he told me.
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he → happen → me
“I choose advocacy.”
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I → choose → advocacy
The park represents more than a list of individuals; it is a historical document for posterity of the people who have been harmed by the toxic dust cloud in a way that, according to Feal, “history can’t distort.”
uncertain
history → represent → Feal
I first met Feal, himself a severely injured 9/11 responder, in person in the fall of 2025.
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I → meet → 2025
He has devoted most of his adult life to protecting the health care program for 9/11 responders and survivors that had been set into federal law in 2011.
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that → devote → 2011
I had followed him to DC, where he and his band of aging 9/11 responders were hell-bent on securing additional legislation to fix the funding formula for the World Trade Center Health Program.
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he → follow → Program
The program brings together medical care and research designed for responders and the local community exposed to the toxic dust cloud in the aftermath of the Twin Towers’ collapse.
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program → bring → collapse
The adjustments they lobbied for included accounting for medical inflation and serving a new wave of sick responders.
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they → lobby → responders
Without it, the program would have reportedly had to stop taking new patients in 2028.
uncertain
program → have → 2028
For the rest of us, the program serves as a national learning laboratory about the health impacts of urban environmental disasters.
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program → serve → disasters
At the time, I was reporting a story about the bodily impacts on 9/11 responders after breathing in or swallowing “World Trade Center Dust”—a cakey and caustic amalgam that burned its way into the nose and throat, and deep into the tissues.
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that → report → tissues
I learned that when cement is pulverized, as it was that day, it reverts to its elemental components, transforming into a poisonous swill with the pH of Drano or lye.
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it → learn → Drano
Some who were in the environs of the dust cloud now live with chronic inflammation of the lungs or digestion: smoldering in the pipes and tissues, never quieting, capable of turning a cold into a life-threatening illness.
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who → live → illness
Some suffer repeated infections from burnt-out sinuses, or perpetual heartburn.
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Some → suffer → sinuses
For others, microparticles of dust were absorbed into the bloodstream from the lungs, taking root in the bone marrow and other organs, and sometimes kicking off a cascade of health problems.
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microparticles → absorb → problems
Even now, the people who worked in the rescue and recovery, along with those who lived and worked in the vicinity of Ground Zero, are getting sick.
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who → work → Zero
Some are being diagnosed with lung, thyroid, or skin cancer, others with blood cancers like lymphoma or multiple myeloma.
asserted
others → diagnose → lymphoma
And the rates of these cancers are higher than what might be expected to occur without ground zero dust exposure.
uncertain
what → expect → exposure
As of June 2026, just over 57,000 responders and survivors are certified by the World Trade Center Health program with cancers related to 9/11.
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responders → certify → 9/11
More people have now died related to exposures to toxic dust at Ground Zero than died in the attacks themselves.
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people → die → attacks
He is wiry and compact, with broad shoulders and arms sleeved with tattoos.
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He → sleeve → tattoos
…and 86 more, not listed.
