91 20 12614 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Thursday, December 20, 2001 2:03 PM Equal Access December 20, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment Newport Beach, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA004519.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Saturday, January 19, 2002 9:59 PM Victim's Compensation Fund To Whom it Concern: I am writing to you about the Victim's Compensation Fund for the victims of the World Trade Center from 9/11. While no fund would ever be totally fair in everyone's eyes, with all due respect this plan is largely unfair. I personally have no vested monetary interest in the fund, as I did not have any family members die. One of best friends did not make, as did another person i knew and my company lost many people from our division Carr Futures. But even if I didn't know anyone there, I would still feel the way that I do. The parts that are unfair in my eyes are basing it on victim's salary In general older people are going to have a higher salary than a younger person, but because they are older they will have in general a shorter life span. That younger person would have their salary going up for a longer period of time than an older higher salaried person would. There is just no fair way to have weighted average salaries basing it on salaries of the past three years. The only way is for everyone to get the same amount of money as a base amount and then adjust for the amount of dependents they have That brings me to point #2. What constitutes a dependent? While I would certainly never disagree with the fact that spouses and children are very important dependents, what about parents who were dependent on a child who died.........or for that matter any other relatives that were dependent on the person who died. They should be entitled to money also And as far as the family members giving up the right to sue........... Without knowing a definite amount they are entitled to, how can someone give up the right to sue? They may not sue if they knew how much they were getting. They should know the amount they are getting and if they don't accept it, the they can sue.....But to give up one's right to sue without knowing what they will be getting is ridiculous. As far as the non-economic award, to me there is no way of knowing of how long each person suffered. To me that is very hard to judge who suffered more or less, everyone suffered that didn't make it. These amounts should be equal and they should be higher than they are I know that it can't be easy for you to come up with amounts that will be fair to everyone. I just wanted to send in an opinion' from someone who will not be entitled to a dime from the Funds. While I did lose someone close to me, I am not writing this entirely because of him... Thanks for your time Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN002084.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, March 20, 2002 4:18 PM Discrimination I am outraged to find out that the fund created by the U S Congress to help the families of those who died in the September 11, 2002 is specifically excluding the partners of gays and lesbians. Please remember that gays and lesbians are U S citizens first and foremost and their partners should be compensated just like everyone else, even the illegal aliens. This is unamerican and I plead with you to change your mind set and help ALL victims. Thank you. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR002391.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, March 13, 2002 1:19 AM Compensation for victims of 9/11 Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, Having heard about your remarks on "Meet the Press" about your plans on distribution of the 9/11 funds to gays and lesbians and their partners, I am shocked and overcome with the thought that any American could, at this time, do something to further try to divide our country and it's citizens. Let's not even mention the fact that non-citizens will probably benefit (illegal immigrants who were working in that area). Just where did you get your ethics and morals? I suppose it must be the same place most organized religions get theirs, their biased and hateful polluted minds. God told us to "not judge, lest ye be judged." Maybe you think you outrank Him. I would think that the few prejudiced and holier-than-thou protesters that might raise objection to you giving out funds to domestic partners of gays and lesbians would be ignored by the vast majority that understand we should be fair and open about these things in this day and age. Or perhaps you might subscribe to Jerry Falwell's idea that what happened on 9/11 is due to the gays/lesbians, immoral, and abortionists. Perhaps you should rethink your position on this matter. Just remember that gays and lesbians represent 10% of the population (as a conservative estimate). Good luck with future political hopes you may have if you make the wrong decision. Sincerely, Individual Comment Houston, Texas September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR000553.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, March 12, 2002 11:25 AM Help I cannot believe that gay survivors of the 9/11 attacks will not receive compensation just because their state doesn't recognize their relationships, especially when families of illegal aliens will get compensation. If the rules can be bent for one, then why not for the other. It is an outrage! Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR000407.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-12 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Saturday, January 26, 2002 1:34 PM Gov Compensation I would like to response to the article I have just read by The Associated Press about the September 11 families pushing for more money. First of all I am sorry that they have lost a family member, however I do not feel that their lost is any more than the family of any John Doe. I do not feel that are government owes these people anything. In a day when some people are without jobs, without homes, without food and Life insurance of any kind is a luxury, I feel that these families should be ashamed to even think of such. If one of my family members were to be killed today would the govenement even give it a second thought. They sure didn't when my father who served 22 years in the Air Force with tours in both Korear and Vietnam. They wouldn't even help supply all of his medications during his last days. I think these people need to set back and think what if their family member had did in a car reck or such or even if this had been a member of my family, what do they feel would be a just compensation then. This was an act of some severly sick people, not our govenment or any other govenment. Nothing is guantered in life not even govenment protection and safety. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojP000169.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-26 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Monday, January 14, 2002 9:35 PM Comment on Interim Final Rule implementing Public Law 107-42 Mr. Feinberg, I have a question about how the regulation of compensation fund will fairly evaluate foreign victims' actual income and compute his/her economic loss. In America, every person pays from his/her own pocket for federal and state tax, pension, life insurance, medical insurance, and house mortgage. The income on the tax return form is the total income earned. So, it is easy to compute, based on tax return, the total income and total economic loss of victims. But, it is not the same to the victims who live and work in China, especially for those who are over 60 years old. For my parents, who perished on Sept 11th, their pension was not their only source of income. As a matter of fact, the pension is the net pay they got after the deduction of medical insurance, life insurance, tax and house mortgage, etc. Additionally, the medical insurance is a life-long insurance. But the amount of money that has been deducted does not show up on their pay checks. Because of the unique system of salary and benefit in China, the pension of my parents will not reflect the real amount of their actual income. In this case, I wonder which rule you will follow to calculate the economic loss of my parents. I do hope the total income can be taken into consideration when evaluating the economic loss. Another issue that I am not sure is about the proof of the income. In US, the tax return can indicate people's income. But, how about victims from a foreign country? Which kind of documents will be used to prove the amount of victims' income? My parents passed away and can not be brought back to life. As their next of the kin, I just want to fight for the compensation that they deserve. So far what I am concerned about is whether or not the foreign victims will be treated fairly if their families choose this compensation program. This is another crucial issue for us. Thanks, Individual Comment Towson, MD PS. I also submit this comment on behalf of my brother, &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp , who lives in Japan. September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001595.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 15, 2001 Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 To Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families. Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those who were already well off in the first place. The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove that their union is legitimate. Fortunately, both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should do the same. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment Roscoe, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA005134.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, December 21, 2001 5:58 AM Help same sex partners of terrorist victims Dear Mr. Zwick: The very humane Fund for relatives of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks must include all relatives of all the victims. This importantly should include the partners and children of same sex unions. They suffer just as grievously for their deceased loved ones as do other survivors, and their need for assistance is just as great. Please do not give in to the importuning of callous homophobic groups and individuals who would have the Department of Justice limit compensation to survivors of heterosexual unions. They are interested in a political victory, not humane assistance. This Fund is intended for humane purposes; it is not a political statement, Mr. Zwick. Sincerely, Individual Comment Portland, OR September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN000228.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 19, 2001 2:13 PM Crisis Relief Benefits December 19, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment Astoria, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA003375.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, December 18, 2001 11:49 PM Equal rights for all surviving 9-11 victims December 18, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment New York, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA002559.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Message: Additional comments Congressman Sununu has received on The Interim Final Rule implementing PL 107-42 Dear Mr. Sununu, My friend, , died in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. I am writing to express my serious concerns and objections to the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) "Interim Final Regulations Governing Payments Under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund." The airline bailout act gave the airlines 315 billion in cash and loan guarantees and capped the airlines' liability for the September 11 crashes at the limits of their insurance coverage. Because of this cap, the damages caused by the crashes greatly exceeds the private fund available to compensate victims and their families. Thus, for the vast majority of victims and families, the cap has the effect of eliminating the right that they would otherwise have to sue the airlines. Congress set up the fund to ensure that the airline bailout would not come at the expense of the victims' families. The act mandates full and fair compensation to victims and their families for their actual economic and non-economic damages. DOJ has ignored this mandate and instead has written arbitrary regulations that will result in compensation levels far below the losses actually suffered by the victims and their families. In fact many families' total compensation from the fund and all collateral sources combined will not even fully replace lost income. In effect, these families will not receive any of the non-economic compensation required by the statue. After collateral sources are deducted, as required by the statute, some families would receive nothing from the fund under the interim final regulations. DOJ's formula allows for non-economic awards at only one tenth the level paid incomparable cases, even though Congress explicitly enumerated a broader range of non-economic damages than could be recovered in any single jurisdiction. DOJ's formula for non-economic damages is $250,000 for the person killed and 50,000 for the spouse and each dependent. In a wide variety of air crash and terrorism cases, however, judges, juries and mediators commonly have provided non-economic damage awards well into the seven figure range. Independent economists have found serious flaws in DOJ's method of calculating economic damages, including use of outdated and inapplicable worklife and life-cycle earnings data. DOJ greatly underestimates promotions and other increases in earnings for victims. It relies on civil service and military retirement system actuarial data that track federal worker incomes and pension requirements, not the higher-paying private sector career paths followed by the vast majority of victims. The interim final regulations also arbitrarily cap a victim's income at $231,000 a year. Combined with the faulty methodology described above, the income cap would result in some families receiving compensation far less than 25% of their actual economic losses. Under DOJ's rules, a family's award may be increased above the "presumptive" award only by a showing of "extraordinary circumstances" - beyond those suffered by other victims or victims' families. This high burden of proof makes a charade of the right to a hearing provided by the statute. DOJ should fulfill the act's intent by revising the rules to compensate victims and their families for the types of damages specified by Congress, at levels comparable to those provided in the court system the fund was designed to replace. While the DOJ has shown flexibility on some aspects of the rules, it is resisting the victims and families requests for significant changes. If the proposed regulations are not changed significantly, victims widows will have to sell their homes deplete their children's college funds, and give up their plans of being full-time parents while their children are young. Many families, anticipating little relief from the fund will decide to sue the airlines and others, despite the handicap of the liability limits. We do not believe these are the outcomes Congress intended. Please contact Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg and tell them of your concern that the interim final regulations fail to conform to the language and intent of the act. With the regulations soon to become final, I believe that only the swift and strong support of Congress can avert unnecessary financial and emotional damage. Thank you for giving this matter your immediate attention. Sincerely, Individual Comment Merrimack, NH January 18, 2001 Congressman John Sununu Dear Congressman Sununu, My sister's husband , and father of two little girls was aboard American Airlines flight 11 when it slammed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I am writing to express my serious concerns and objections to the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) "Interim Final Regulations Governing Payments Under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund." The airline bailout act gave the airlines $15 billion in cash and loan guarantees and capped the airlines' liability for the September 11 crashes at the limits of their insurance coverage. Because of this cap, the damages caused by the crashes greatly exceeds the private fund available to compensate victims and their families. Thus, for the vast majority of victims and families, the cap has the effect of eliminating the right that they would otherwise have to sue the airlines. Congress set up the fund to ensure that the airline bailout would not come at the expense of the victims' families. The act mandates full and fair compensation to victims and their families for their actual economic and non- economic damages. DOJ has ignored this mandate and instead has written arbitrary regulations that will result in compensation levels far below the losses actually suffered by the victims and their families. In fact many families' total compensation from the fund and all collateral sources combined will not even fully replace lost income. In effect, these families will not receive any of the non-economic compensation required by the statue. After collateral sources are deducted, as required by the statute, some families would receive nothing from the fund under the interim final regulations. DOJ's formula allows for non-economic awards at only one tenth the level paid in comparable cases, even though Congress explicitly enumerated a broader range of non- economic damages than could be recovered in any single jurisdiction. DOJ's formula for non-economic damages is $250,000 for the person killed and 50,000 for the spouse and each dependent. In a wide variety of air crash and terrorism cases, however, judges, juries and mediators commonly have provided non-economic damage awards well into the seven figure range. Independent economists have found serious flaws in DOJ's method of calculating economic damages, including use of outdated and inapplicable worklife and life-cycle earnings data. DOJ greatly underestimates promotions and other increases in earnings for victims. It relies on civil service and military retirement system actuarial data that track federal worker incomes and pension requirements, not the higher-paying private sector career paths followed by the vast majority of victims. The interim final regulations also arbitrarily cap a victim's income at $231,000 a year. Combined with the faulty methodology described above, the income cap would result in some families receiving compensation far less than 25% of their actual economic losses. Under DOJ's rules, a family's award may be increased above the "presumptive" award only by a showing of "extraordinary circumstances" - beyond those suffered by other victims or victims' families. This high burden of proof makes a charade of the right to a hearing provided by the statute. DOJ should fulfill the act's intent by revising the rules to compensate victims and their families for the types of damages specified by Congress, at levels comparable to those provide in the court system the fund was designed to replace. While the DOJ has shown flexibility on some aspects of the rules, it is resisting the victims and families requests for significant changes. If the imposed regulations are not changed significantly, victims widows will have to sell their homes deplete their children's college funds, and give up their plans of being full-time parents while their children are young. Many families, anticipating little relief from the fund will decide to sue the airlines and others, despite the handicap of the liability limits. We do not believe these are the outcomes Congress intended. Please contact Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg and tell them of your concern that the interim final regulations fail to conform to the language and intent of the act. With the regulations soon to become final, I believe that only the swift and strong support of Congress can avert unnecessary financial and emotional damage. Thank you for giving this matter your immediate attention. Sincerely, Individual Comment Hudson, NH September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-01-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojP000115.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-01-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. December 30, 2001 Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg September 11th Victim Compensation Fund U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 December 30, 2001 Dear Mr. Feinberg: I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the September 11th tragedy, including the children and families of gay and lesbian Americans who perished. That you recognize the sanctity and legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and families as you make these crucial decisions is imperative. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of marriage is largely unavailable, these families often find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove the legitimacy of their union. Both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. Our United States Department of Justice must follow suit. As an American, I ask you to keep in mind the gay and lesbian citizens who serve heroically as police, firefighters, soldiers, medical personnel and in other critical occupations. We also must keep in mind the gay and lesbian Americans who donated to the compensation fund trusting that their gift would be distributed without prejudice. It would be unconscionable to dispense their monies while denying the legitimacy, worth and humanity of other gay and lesbian Americans. Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important issues. Sincerely, Individual Comment Middleboro, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-30 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN002620.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-30 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, January 15, 2002 9:14 PM Victims Compensation Dear Mr. Feinberg: Re: Comments on the Interim Rule of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 I am writing to ask for your help to correct two inequities in the Department of Justice's Interim Final Rule for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 that will result in many families receiving no compensation from the fund. This is because (1) the projected economic and non-economic loss figures are unrealistically low; and (2) the Fund reduces any award by the amount of money a victim family receives from a "collateral source." When Congress passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act on September 22, 2001, it severely restricted September 11 victims' right to sue the airlines, which bear ultimate responsibility for the tragedy because of lax security procedures. In exchange for denying victims the right to sue, Congress provided the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. The Fund is supposed to compensate the victims' families for the types of losses that would have been recoverable in a lawsuit, but without the burden and delay of litigation. The Interim Rule/Regulation also describes the intention of the law: "The Fund is designed to provide a no-fault alternative to tort litigation for individuals who were physically injured or killed as a result of the aircraft hijackings and crashes on September 11, 2001" {Interim Rule/Regulation, Summary Paragraph A.1.}. "The attached regulations have two objectives: (1) To provide fair, predictable and consistent compensation to the victims of September 11 and their families throughout the life of the program; and (2) to do so in an expedited, efficient manner without unnecessary bureaucracy and needless demands on the victims." {Interim Rule/Regulation, Supplementary Information.}. The Interim Final Rule fails to meet the intent of Congress, however, because many victims' families will net nothing after collateral source funds are subtracted from the already undervalued economic and non-economic loss projections. The Interim Final Rule understates economic loss by underestimating the lifetime earning potential of victims at all income levels. Noted economists at the National Association of Forensic Economists showed that the Interim Final Rule uses outdated statistics and inappropriate methods to arrive at low estimates of our loved one's future earnings. An analysis done by one of these economists showed that the actual earnings growth for firefighters is 27% higher than the DOJ estimate, the actual earnings growth of all college educated workers is 30% higher than DOJ indicates, and actual earnings growth for financial professionals is more than 100% higher than the DOJ estimate. The Interim Final Rule also falls short of Congress's goals for non-economic loss. The figure for presumed non-economic loss compensation of $250,000 plus an additional $50,000 for the spouse and each dependent is rationalized as being roughly equivalent to the amounts received by public safety officers who were killed while on duty, or members of the military who are killed in the line of duty while serving our nation. With all due respect to such public safety officers and military personnel, they choose to go into harm's way and their loss is not the result of corporate negligence. On the other hand, the September 11 victims are victims of negligent airline security. Perhaps more realistic guidance as to the value of non-economic loss can be found in other air crash disaster awards. For example, non-economic losses recovered in other air crash and terrorism cases commonly result in awards of between $2 million and $5 million. A more reasonable projection of non-economic loss is probably somewhere between the current proposal and the historical litigation result. The Interim Final Rule reduces any compensation awards by the amount of any funds received from collateral sources, including life insurance. The Interim Final Rule does this because Congress included such a provision in the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act. That does not make it fair; that does not make it right. In many states, the law on "the collateral source rule" has been well settled for over one hundred years. Under that rule, damages recoverable for personal injury or death, caused by the negligence of another, cannot be reduced because of compensation received by proceeds of an insurance policy. This is because the wrongdoer owes full compensation for the injuries inflicted by them and any payment by a collateral source in no way relieves the wrongdoer of their obligation. In this instance, the airlines and others at fault owe full compensation for the injuries resulting from their negligence. Any payment by a collateral source in no way relieves the airlines and others at fault of their obligation. This collateral source rule, which has been a fundamental part of tort victim compensation for over a hundred years, needs to be incorporated into the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund. The Interim Final Rule needs to be adjusted to provide fair, balanced and acceptable economic and non-economic loss projections. The economic loss charts need to be increased and expanded depending upon the deceased's job field. The non-economic loss amounts also need to be increased into a range that accounts for the tragic way in which these innocent victims died and the shattered lives they left behind. Collateral source recoveries need to be excluded from consideration by the Fund. Without these changes, the intent of Congress will not be fulfilled because there will be no reason for many of the September 11 victim families to participate in the Fund. Without these changes, it will be better for many victim families to take a chance at litigation rather than sign on to a Fund through which they will receive nothing but a waiver of their right to sue. Please rectify these inequities. Give the victim families a reason to participate in this Fund rather than litigate. Change the Interim Final Rule to provide economic and non-economic amounts at fair, balanced and acceptable levels; do not offset Fund awards by collateral source recoveries; establish a fair appeal process. Finally, please include the specific calculation formulas, statistics and assumptions within the rule or the explanatory materials. Sincerely, Individual Comment Sierra Vista, AZ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001837.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, December 21, 2001 5:24 AM Comment on the Interim Final Rule on the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund I for one feel that the fund should be as restrictive or should attempt to minimize the amount that the government disburses to the victims as much as possible. While the incident sparking this was a horrific act, so was the Oklahoma City bombing, so was many other attacks and natural or accidental events. While the idea that the government is the life insurer of last resort in this case, allowing families of 9-11 victims to benefit excessively (once you add the charitable contributions that the rule ignores) is unfair to all those other victims from other events. Why should the family of a 9-11 victim, in addition to generous death benefits that occur in some cases (such as what I have read about NYC firefighters), and / or in addition to generous charitable contributions that will likely be disbursed, also receive hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars from the government? While no amount of money can make the family whole again due to the loss of life, it seems unjust to victims that came before and after 9-11 seem less important, it sets a bad precedent that you don't have to plan your family's finances yourself - the government will help them out, and puts an unfair burden on the citizens of the United States. I read that some families of victims that were making large incomes are upset because of a salary cap. If the victim was making millions of dollars, I would hope they put some of that away for a rainy day. The burden of their poor financial planning should NOT be borne by average Americans that can only imagine that type of lifestyle. Individual Comment Basking Ridge, NJ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN000216.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, December 04, 2001 8:06 PM Please help ALL surviving families of 9/11 victims, including same-sex partners Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing in response to the Department's request for public comments regarding the forthcoming regulations for implementing and administering the "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund." I strongly urge the Department to draft regulations that ensure compensation is available to all victims of the attack, including the committed partners and the non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims. It is unquestionable that the devastating grief and economic losses suffered by the families of gay and lesbian victims are no less than that of other families. Just as the terrorists drew no lines in choosing their victims, our country must draw no lines in compensating those who suffered the most personal of losses from these horrific attacks. Many Americans lost their lives on September 11, each of whom left behind loved ones. I urge the Department to honor these bonds by treating the families of gay and lesbian victims as you would any other. Sincerely, Individual Comment Washington, DC September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojA000544.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Sunday, November 25, 2001 10:46 PM Comments: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Attachment 1: November 25, 2001 Dear Mr. Zwick: I lost my only son in the horrific terrorist attacks on the WTC 9/11/01. My son was also tragically taken from his wife, two sisters and six young nephews. I have great concerns over the determination and administration of the proposed legislation: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. My son as well as the majority of the other victims that day were killed in the absolute prime of their lives - doing what we as families and our nation had taught them early on in their lives to do - work hard - be responsible - be good citizens. They were at work before 9:AM in the morning, pursuing their dreams and planning for the economic futures of their families. It is painfully clear that among others sharing responsibility for those tragic events, American Airlines and United Airlines failed to provide us with even minimum security - allowing four hijackings in a matter of hours. It seems to me to be unquestionably in the best interests of the airlines, the U.S. Government, the victims, the victims families as well as all Americans to have an equitable out-of-court settlement rather than endure lengthy, painful litigation which will drag out for many years. The settlement offer, therefore, must be one that is acceptable to the victims and their families and compensates them for their losses. Following are my comments with respect to the proposed legislation: 1. The definitions, terms and provisions need to be clearly and simply stated. 2. There should be two separate procedures for filing claims. One form should be used for the surviving victims and another form should be used for families of deceased victims. 3. With respect to compensation to families of deceased victims, the formula should be simple and straightforward. (A) Economic Loss - something on the order of the average of the victim's income over the last 3 years multiplied by the number of years remaining to their retirement age. (B) Non-Economic Loss should be the same dollar amount for all victims and/or families. Pain and suffering is not measurable or distinguishable. How can it be determined that one's pain and suffering is greater than another's. (C) Collateral Sources such as life insurance, pension funds, IRA's, 40lk's and legislated tax relief should not be deducted from an individual's payments. These have been paid for by the victim, were part of their compensation package - or have been offered as a relief to families. 4. A simple to understand settlement package needs to be offered to each claimant of deceased victims. The dollar amount of the settlement needs to be provided to the claimants prior to expecting claimants to waive their rights to file civil actions. 5. Claimants of deceased families should not be expected to prove their case to a Special Master. They have already endured more than is imaginable. If the victim has been provided a "Victim Identification Number, has been issued a death certificate and can supply 3 years' tax returns, this should be sufficient for the administrators of the fund to formulate a proposed settlement package for these families. 6. Claimants want to accept a settlement package. They simply want to bring some closure to this terrible tragedy, go on with the lengthy grieving process, have some economic hope for a future without their loved ones and maintain trust and confidence in their Government. If the package is fair, claimants will accept it. If it is not, they will have no choice but to pursue other legal options available to them as Americans. Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments. I only hope that in the weeks ahead as you finalize this legislation you will keep the horror and magnitude of our pain and loss in your hearts and do what may be difficult - but is just and right. Respectfully, Grieving Mother Individual Comment New York, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-25 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojW000552.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-11-25 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, December 28, 2001 1:44 PM Please Support Equal Access to Relief Benefits for Gay/Lesbian Partners December 28, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I write as a member of Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights movement committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination, in support of equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As you know, the United States has committed to uphold international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination. As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, I ask that you apply basic international human rights standards, and the general principle of equality, by including among relatives eligible for compensation those who lost their life partners, as well as de facto parents or children, without regard to sexual orientation or marital status. The State of New York has already adopted such a policy, granting compensation benefits "on a showing of mutual interdependence with the victim, in recognition that anyone who shared with the victim living expenses, day to day activities and the emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need." Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks. Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had mixed results in obtaining equal treatment at the local level in the distribution of relief funds by private and state agencies. An inclusive policy on the part of the federal government would help establish an important principle for other such funds. In compensating victims, real justice will be served only when all families - and all types of families - impacted by the human rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment New York, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001104.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2001-12-28 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:15 PM Blatant discrimination of gay Americans Kenneth R. Feinberg 9/11 victim compensation fund John Ashcroft U S Department of IN-justice cc President George W Bush cc Senator Diane Feinstien cc Senator Barbara Boxer cc Congresswoman Lois Capps SHAME ON YOU MR FEINBERG, AND SHAME TO MR ASHCROFT FOR SUPPORTING HIS DISCRIMINATION OF GAY AMERICANS. Mr. Feinberg states: "The goal in this final rule was simply to create the best and fairest program possible within the requirements set by Congress." He then contradicts himself by excluding ten percent of the population. Congress passed this act to help ALL victims of the 9-11 attacks, not just the straight ones. The congress has entrusted Mr. Feinberg as Special Master to determine eligibility and the amount of compensation to be made. Feinberg has publicly indicated his unequivocal intent to make the Fund as accessible as possible and has said that he will take special measures to protect vulnerable claimants, including unborn children and undocumented immigrants. In fact, he has stated that John Ashcroft will not deport these illegal immigrants nor charge any employer with illegal hiring practices in order to assist these non-American victims; overlooking many federal and state laws. But when it comes to tax paying Americans who happen to be gay or lesbian, Mr. Feinberg decides to rely on individual state laws to determine eligibility, claiming the law is the law. In doing this, he has created a huge lack of uniformity in eligibility requirements, and an even greater lack of fairness and equality. It appears he took special measures to guarantee gay and lesbian victims won't be claimants at all. Early on, the Lambda Legal defense organization gave Mr. Feinberg numerous suggestions on handling gay domestic partners, citing the New York courts as an example of how partnerships can be validated, and presented several concerns about notification to reduce disputes and legal challenges. These suggestions were completely ignored. In his defense of the "Rules" that he set, Mr. Feinberg lumps lifelong partners of gay and lesbian couples with non- married straight couples and fiancées, and leaves it up to each state to decide who is eligible. What he overlooked is unlike straight couples, gay and lesbians are not allowed to be married in any state. Most states recognize straight couples who live together as common law marriages, but they have no classification for same sex couples. This is not a State compensation fund, it is a Federal fund and therefore should not rely on individual state laws. As far as I know, there is no state law which prohibits a domestic partner from being a beneficiary. There just currently isn't any law requiring this. There is no legitimate reason why the Federal government can't recognize the partners of gay and lesbian victims. Recognizing gay partners also effects the amount of the compensation that will be paid out. Because gay couples can not marry, any deceased gay victim is automatically assumed to be single. According to the compensation tables, a single person is valued significantly less than a married person because all of his income goes to supporting himself instead of a spouse. These tables ignore gay couples who depend on their partner's income just as much as straight married couples do. So even if a state does recognize a gay partner as eligible, he will not receive the same amount of compensation as a married person would. When Mr. Ashcroft was sworn into office, he promised to defend justice for ALL Americans. Where is he now? How can he sanction such blatant discrimination? It is obvious that Mr. Fienberg and Mr. Ashcroft are less interested in true fairness and equity, and more interested with pandering to their right-wing friends and upholding their intolerance and bigotry toward gay people. America justified to the rest of the world that we had to over throw the Taliban because they were dictating their religious views and oppressing the rights of their citizens. What are the people of the world thinking now when they see such hypocrisy as the American government dictates right wing religious beliefs and oppresses the rights of ten percent of it's own citizens. America is supposed to be a positive example of freedom and equality. Show the world that "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL" isn't just a catchy slogan. Change the "rules" and include ALL Americans. Individual Comment Nipomo, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojR002421.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-03-20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, January 18, 2002 11:30 AM Life insurance In establishing the Victims Compensation Fund Congress defines the term "collateral source" and within that definition it refers to "life insurance." There are many different kinds of life insurance. For instance, there is term insurance, which could be construed as some form of disaster insurance. This type of insurance has an associated liability stream into the future. If a victim were paid out of a term life insurance policy then he would no longer be subject to that liability stream. It makes sense to me that Congress meant to include term life insurance as a collateral source. However, I think it should be carefully considered by the Special Master as to whether Congress meant to include some other forms of life insurance which are essentially forms of investment. For instance, I am representing a victim who only owned whole life insurance policies. They were very expensive policies in which he invested large sums of money over many years until there was no future liability. There were no additional premiums due on his policies. Being compensated by these policies as a result of death should be construed as a return of invested capital. This person made a choice to invest for his retirement through the conduit of whole life insurance policies. This was not disaster insurance. If the Special Master calls paid-up whole life insurance a collateral source of income then he is implicitly telling this family that their husband and father made very bad investment choices. He should have invested his money elsewhere. When this family collects from those policies, they are not receiving a windfall from an insurance company having made a poor bet. They will largely be receiving a return of the capital that was invested in the policy. It was their capital. Offsetting an award by the proceeds of this form of policy makes no more sense than offsetting an award by the value of someone's collection of rare paintings. I hope the Special Master considers these different types of insurance policies very carefully when interpreting the intent of Congress. Respectfully submitted, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001983.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-18