The Foundation For Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) today called upon taxpayers across the nation to sign over their tax refund checks to the families of the deceased firemen, policemen, and other heroes of the tragedy.

FTCR has no financial connections to any relief funds. The group believes that a spontaneous movement of taxpayers can cause a nationwide reaction that will not only support the families of the heroes but also send a powerful message of national unity. FTCR’s executive director Jamie Court has pledged to sign over his family’s $600 refund check to a fund for the firefighters’ families.

“The families of heroes who left their homes and never returned deserve these dollars as public thanks,” said Court. “A generous act can beget a chain reaction of generosity by those who are unable to physically lend their hands as volunteers in New York. These refund checks will not only be a lifeline for families who will face financial hardships but will also send a message to the world that the American public stands behind its heroes with its dollars. Future American heroes must know that their families will never have to want because of their courage. These refund checks can be a down payment not only on the remembrance of heroism but on its future.”

FTCR is a Santa Monica, California-based, non-profit, non-partisan consumer and taxpayer watchdog group. Today, for instance, the group is working to stop the California legislature, on its last day of session, from passing a multi-billion dollar bailout of the electric utility Southern California Edison.