My Dad Is Strong, Now I Will Be, Too

By Ceasar Borja Jr.
Special to the News
January 25, 2007

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/491675p-414171c.html

THE NIGHT BEFORE my father passed away, I took out our old family photos. I was going to go to Washington to be Sen. Hillary Clinton's guest at the State of the Union speech, and I wanted to remember my father.

My favorite one is from a vacation at Disney World when I was about 3. My dad was giving me a piggyback ride, with my legs draped over his shoulders and his hands holding me up.

I was so small. I like it because it's my dad keeping me balanced and literally carrying me on his shoulders. But now I'm carrying him on my shoulders.

My father, Cesar Borja, was a New York City police officer. In making people feel safe and protected, he felt like it was the best job in the world. He always told me he didn't want to go up in rank. He liked being on the streets where the people are. He felt like he could make the most difference there.

I was never afraid of my dad doing anything because he never failed. He was a hero when he worked at the World Trade Center, and when he passed away Tuesday night, he died a hero.

My dad called everyone "Baby" - he called me baby, and I'm 21. Now, I say it, too. He also called me "Kuya," which is my nickname. He named me after himself, but he spelled my name a little differently because he wanted to make me unique. I know I'm technically not a "Junior" because he spells it differently, but if my father says I'm a Junior, I am.

My father was a pretty macho guy. He didn't talk about a lot of things in depth, but he would take me out to the garage and we would work on cars together. He'd say, "Kuya, come on. Let's go do this." He loved us so much.

He didn't say much, but I know what he would say if he had survived. It would be just one sentence: "Told you I'd come home." And if my dad could talk to George Bush, he'd say just one thing: "Think we deserve this?"

Just being alone in the [hospital] room with my father and studying him, I understand him more.

He looked so tough. Bullies used to pick on me because I'm so small. My dad said, "Kuya, am I the biggest police officer? No. I'm one of the smallest. But I'm never absent, and I always do my best." He's my hero. He taught me everything.

What I'm most proud of receiving from dad is his strength. People say I'm strong to be speaking about him right after he passed away, but if you think I'm strong now, you should have seen my father on a normal day. I'm proud to even get a fraction of his strength.

Now, I'm fighting for my father and for all the heroes of the World Trade Center. He always said, "Do your best or do nothing." I'm doing my best so that everyone who is suffering can get the care and the help that they need, so no other son ever has to go through what I'm going through.

Ceasar Borja Jr. lives in Bayside, Queens. He is a student at Hunter College and plans to major in journalism.

First responder dies from 9/11 illness as son attends 'Union'

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — College student Ceasar Borja Jr. wanted to attend the State of the Union speech to represent his father, a former New York police officer who worked at ground zero and lay in a hospital bed with life-threatening lung problems.

Only hours before the speech, the 21-year-old found out he would stand as a symbol of his father's sacrifice not just for the speech, but for the rest of his life.

A devastating phone call during dinner Tuesday night told him his father had just died.

Even though he got the news less than three hours before President Bush's speech, Borja insisted on honoring his father's memory by going ahead and attending the prime-time address. He had been invited by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a longtime advocate for Sept. 11 health issues.

"He passed away right when I'm down here fighting for him. This is the most I've ever done for Dad," the Daily News quoted Borja as saying as he learned of his father's death.


The father, 52-year-old Cesar Borja, had been a police officer for 20 years. In recent days, he had been in an intensive care ward at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, breathing through a tube and hoping for a lung transplant.

"Sadly he was not able to overcome his struggle and receive the gift of organ donation, due to the seriousness of his condition," said the medical center's chief executive officer, Dr. Kenneth L. Davis. "His battle will alert others to these devastating diseases and hopefully lead to better outcomes for others involved."

Borja's case is the latest to draw attention to those who have fallen ill after exposure to the toxic debris pile of the World Trade Center site in 2001.

Sen. Clinton called Borja's death a "terrible tragedy."

The son, she said, "is a courageous and remarkable young man. His sense of duty to his father and to the mission that brought him to Washington is inspiring and heartbreaking."

Borja said he came to Washington to make the point that there are many more whose lives are threatened by their exposure at ground zero.

Clinton and other New York lawmakers have been urging the federal government for years to pay for treating Sept. 11-related illnesses.

He Will Tell the Nation about His Dying Dad

Daily News editorial
January 23, 2007

His father answered the call to duty and now the son follows.

Ceasar Borja, all of 21 years old, will tonight join the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and members of the Supreme Court in listening to George W. Bush's seventh State of the Union address. The President's words will fill the august chamber as the young man's dad slips ever closer to death.

For, barring a miracle, death is coming for Cesar Borja at the age of 52. He is dying because, as a New York City police officer, he served at Ground Zero after the World Trade Center disintegrated, week after week searing his lungs with the towers' airborne remains.

Without a lung transplant, Cesar Borja will suffocate. In the days just past, he has been battling infection and hovering beneath consciousness at Mount Sinai Medical Center. It's doubtful he will hear the President tonight or witness the moment when the oldest of his three children stands forth as the emissary of all the forgotten victims of 9/11. But there's no doubt he would be proud.

Young Ceasar Borja might just be the man who will prod Bush to see, as Borja said yesterday, "that 9/11 did not end that year. It still continues now to the present day." He might just be the person who prompts the President, finally, to understand that the federal government has a long-term responsibility to pay for health care for thousands of sickened rescue and recovery workers.

This State of the Union address is particularly critical for Bush. He will be speaking to ascendant Democrats while facing deep bipartisan hostility toward his plan for a troop surge in Iraq - and while shadowed by the most debilitating of questions: Is this President relevant anymore?

Early reports have it that Bush will devote a goodly amount of attention to domestic matters, such as energy independence, health insurance and immigration, that have gone by the boards as his administration lost touch with the

American public. Each has long deserved a place high on the national agenda. So, too, providing excellent medical treatment to the men and women who have paid, and will continue to pay, enormous prices because they responded to an act of war.

Young Borja will be the guest tonight of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has long been a leading advocate on 9/11 health issues. With Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Vito Fossella, she pushed and cajoled and embarrassed the Department of Health and Human Services into delivering its first treatment funding last year - five years after the fact. But there's enough money to last only until summer.

Clinton and Maloney, Democrats, and Fossella, a Republican, want Bush to create a line in the federal budget to continue treatment for as long as is necessary, and a Senate committee is set to hold hearings next month on a Clinton bill that would allocate $1.9 billion over five years to 9/11 health issues.

Judging by the dignity with which he has conducted himself since the Daily News told the story of his father's battle with pulmonary fibrosis, Borja may well crystallize for the na

tion how badly the government has failed the 9/11 responders. In anticipation of his trip, he met the press yesterday. Here is some of what he had to say:

"My father Cesar Borja is 52 years old and he is a retired NYPD police officer. He has served and protected the city of New York for 20 years, and retired in 2003. ... "I have two younger siblings. Evan, my brother, who is 16. But I feel sorry the most for my youngest. Her name is Nhia. She's my sister. She's 12 years old.

"I'm going tomorrow to Washington, D.C., with Sen. Hillary Clinton - and I thank her for that - for a chance to reach further more of the press and to promote that 9/11 did not end that year. It still continues now to the present day.

"And I am not the only one affected. But I know that I represent them.

"I hope that the government will pass legislation offering financial support for medical attention, proper health care, for all those heroes-turned-victims due to the fact that they did not hesitate on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's not just New York's Finest or New York's Bravest, but also volunteers. I remember coming here shortly thereafter to see what was going on. I probably first arrived here at the World

Trade Center, at Ground Zero, perhaps Sept. 14, when my parents thought it was safe for me to come and visit. And I saw license plates from all over America, even Canada. They came to help. ...

"I'm lucky to be 21, to have known my father as long as I have. I hope that with proper medical attention, little girls and young boys like my brother, 16, won't have to go through what my family's going through. ...

"That is why I need the help of the government. Not just me, but everyone, everyone that's been affected, all the heroes, all of the families, all of the wives, the sons, the daughters, the brothers, the sisters, the grandmothers, the grandfathers, everyone that has been affected by 9/11. We need the help of the U.S. government. Please."

Extending a State of the Union invitation to Ceasar Borja was one of Clinton's first acts after declaring her entry into the 2008 presidential contest. Call it political if you will, but accept it as political in the best sense of the word. She is giving a young man on the verge of loss a platform from which to appeal to the conscience of a generous nation, as well as to a President who should listen and respond.

Our Poster

Our poster depicted in this photo. Rescue and Recovery First Responders and Ceasar Borja jr, son of Police Officer Ceasar Borja

Last Thursday, there was a vigil outside of Mt Sinai Hospital for Ceasar Borja. John Feal attended the vigil outside Mt Sinai for a police officer who has pulmonary fibrosis. The police officer has only one choice of waiting for a lung transplant or dying. John (pictured on the right side of Ceasar jr) had the first responders who attended the vigil sign one of our posters and gave it to the son of the officer. It is important for our poster to extend out into the community for more people to see. Once this poster becomes synonymous with the efforts of bringing to light the health of rescue and recovery workers, we'll be able to have more power in telling the city what we need in order to live longer and healthier lives as opposed to the ones like Police Officer Ceasar Borja have to live through.