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<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="21365" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://www.911digitalarchive.org/items/show/21365?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-05-13T11:10:57-04:00">
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        <elementContainer>
          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="264506">
                <text>Department of Justice Emails</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="41">
            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="264507">
                <text>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.</text>
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  <itemType itemTypeId="18">
    <name>September 11 Email</name>
    <description/>
    <elementContainer>
      <element elementId="65">
        <name>September 11 Email: Body</name>
        <description>The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="269140">
            <text>
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 10:39 AM
Outrage

In recent interviews, the head of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund
(a fund created by Congress to help the families of those who died on
September 11) has made clear that the partners of gay and lesbian heroes of
September 11 will not necessarily receive the same benefits as the spouses
of heterosexual victims of the horrible terror attacks.

EVEN FETUSES AND ILLEGAL ALIENS WILL BE RECEIVING BENEFITS under this
problem - heck, they've even promised to overlook federal law and NOT arrest
and kick out the families of illegal aliens, nor will they punish American
companies that hired illegals in violation of federal labor laws.

But when  it comes to gay and lesbian heroes of the day - 
          
           who
helped bring down the flight in Pennsylvania,  
          
          who died in the line of duty when the first tower fell, and

          
           who was 
           of the plane that crashed into the

          
           (there
are many more) - we are told the law is the law and no exceptions can be
made.

If September 11 has taught us anything, it's that our patriotism and love of
country transcend our differences and unite us all.  We were told that
September 11 was the day that "hyphenated-Americans" were no more, and
rather than being Italian-Americans, African-Americans or gay-Americans, we
were now simply Americans, all of us together as one American family.
Apparently, that family just got a divorce.

The hyphens seem not to matter when our government wants to use our heroism
to inspire others, but when it comes time to actually aid the families of
those heroes, the hyphens come back with a vengeance, and it seems that some
American heroes are now more equal than others.

I am outraged that gay and lesbian partners of those who died on September
11 are not automatically going to receive the same benefits as heterosexual
spouses.  Their families are no less valid and worth of support.

Individual Comment
Conifer, Colorado



 
</text>
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      <element elementId="66">
        <name>September 11 Email: Date</name>
        <description>The local time and date when the message was written.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="269141">
            <text>2002-03-19</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
    </elementContainer>
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    <elementSet elementSetId="1">
      <name>Dublin Core</name>
      <description>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/.</description>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269142">
              <text>dojR002102.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269143">
              <text>approved</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269144">
              <text>full</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="54">
          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269145">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269146">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269147">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269148">
              <text>email</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269149">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="60">
          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269150">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="269151">
              <text>2002-03-19</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
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  </elementSetContainer>
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