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, March 11, 2002 11:27 PM Mr. Feinberg, here's where you got it wrong Dear Mr. Feinberg, Before I tell you where you got it wrong, I must say that I would appreciate any reply you might care to give. I must begin by telling you that I found your conduct at the Boston meeting to be reprehensible. You seemed to have a lack of understanding regarding who it was that you were speaking to, and what we had been through as a group. I know that you say different, but your actions contradicted your words. Furthermore, at the meeting, you said several times, "Trust me." Well, I didn't, and I was right. Second, your performance on "Meet The Press," this weekend was the worst kind of dishonesty. Oh, I do not believe that you lied, but you also did not tell the whole truth. You have, from the inception of this process, insisted on using the pre-collateral deduction figure as the "Average award," as you call it. You know that the American people hear this, and conclude that this is what the average check will be. Again, this shows that despite your insistence, we were correct not to trust you. Now to where you went wrong. Right in the Final Regulations, you state that the "Victims' Compensation Fund," was created to compensate victims for their loss. Another half-truth. Congress knew that it would have been both unfair, and unconstitutional to pass the "Airline Bailout Bill," which as you know not only bailed out the airlines through loans, but also capped the liability on each flight at the extent of the insurance coverage carried for it, without providing some measure of recompense for the victims' families. So the "Victims' Compensation Fund," was truly created to compensate victims for the loss of their rights, and opportunity. This is the first thing that you missed or ignored. I will grant you, that winning such a lawsuit is not a given, and it takes time, however, this too what you missed or ignored. Any insurer, absent the existing cap on liability, would choose to attempt to settle any case that the believed that they had a substantial chance of losing. The cap removes any motive to settle that the insurance company might have had, because they already know what their maximum expenditure will be. In closing, when you were in Boston, I had the opportunity to ask you one of the final questions of the day. I wrote my questions before I asked it, a fact I am very glad of now. My question went as follows: "As a historian, and as a teacher of history, I have developed an inherent distrust for the people within government. You have said several times times today, "Trust me."" I continued, "Then tell me something that you are willing to do, or are planning to do which will make me have trust in you. What changes are you planning to make which will make me trust you?" In response you first quizzed me on history, and when you seemed dissatisfied that I didn't back off, you choose to answer an entirely different question. When I pointed out to you that you still hadn't answered my question, and asked if you planned to do so, you said, "No, I haven't made any plans yet." That's when I knew that I had just wasted my time, because the fix was in, and as we say in Boston, "The whole thing was a bag job." I would appreciate any comments have in response. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-11 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 dojR000259.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. 2002-03-11