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. January 21, 2002 Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20530 Dear Mr. Zwick: As the widow of who lost his life in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, I would like to state that I certainly appreciate you efforts and that of your staff in establishing the Interim final rules for the September 11th Compensation Fund of 2001. At the same time, however, I respectfully request that certain specific modifications to the rules be made in an effort to more fully comply with the Congressional mandate for full and fair compensation in both economic and non-economic terms. The current interim final rules fail to meet this mandate, in my opinion, due to a lack of clarity in determining economic damages and presumed non-economical damages being held to a level, which is utterly at odds with historical precedent through litigation. In order to more fully comply with the clear intent of Congress and to prevent the conclusion that litigation is the only fair alternative. I would request that the rules be amended to allow for economic damages calculated on incomes in excess of $231,000 cap currently proposed and that such calculations be done in a consistent fashion and documented across the earnings spectrum. While the elimination of such cap would have no potential benefit in my case, I feel that only through consistency can true fairness be achieved. Additionally, in order to fully and fairly compensate victims whose combination of specific circumstances and collateral offsets might result in no payment from the Fund, I would request that a meaningful minimum compensation level be established as well. By far my area of greatest concern, though, pertains to the subject of non-economic damages in that the proposed formula dictates compensation of $250,000 for the deceased plus $50,000 each for the surviving spouse and children. Such an award represents only a fraction of what would likely be awarded through litigation and, therefore, does very little to minimize pain and suffering. My late husband, having been a proud alumnus of Georgetown University is survived by our two wonderful young boys who eagerly look forward to attending as he did. When they are both of college age in the year 2012, however, the projected annual cost of attending Georgetown is in excess of $52,000. Are my children to grow up with the realization that our government felt that fair compensation for the tragic loss of their father was less than one year of college expenses? Should this terribly distressing conclusion be deemed acceptable, then I fear my children and perhaps thousands of others will grow up disillusioned and forever bitter toward our government. Certainly this outcome would only serve to further the tragedy, which our nation has already suffered. I must admit that no financial award, regardless of size, could ever adequately compensate for the loss of someone who was the perfect son to his parents, the perfect husband to me, and the perfect father to our children. Truly full and fair compensation from the fund, however, will at least forever comfort us in the realization that our government too, views not mere as a victim but as the hero he will always be to me and my family. Once again I would like to commend you on your efforts thus far and appreciate your willingness to consider my comments and requests. Sincerely, Individual Comment Middletown, NJ September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-21 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 dojN002560.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. 2002-01-21