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, March 16, 2002 2:34 PM copy The following is an excerpt from a copy of my recent letter to Senator McCain. I am not a Sept 11 surviving partner and I can receive no pecuniary benefit. I am a veteran with service as both an enlisted man and an officer. Please read: Dear Senator McCain: I read your glowing tribute to . It's clear that at the beginning of this war, you may very well owe your life to this young gay man. I'm sure that this isn't the first time your life has been spared because of the bravery of another American gay man, as many served in the Vietnam conflict as well. Unfortunately, your plea for recognition for isn't being respected by the people running the September 11 Victims' Compensation Fund. Those people are going to pay money to unborn fetuses and illegal aliens who survive the victims of the WTC attack and our government has even promised not to deport those aliens nor prosecute employers who knowingly violated the law. However, when it comes to paying benefits to surviving gay partners the Fund overseers say that they must follow each State's laws in determining whether or not the partner of a gay or lesbian victim should receive compensation. They're just following the law to discriminate. It's never been wrong for gay men and lesbians to die for America as evidenced by our government's frequent STOP-LOSS orders during times when uniformed personell are placed in Harm's Way. But during times of peace it is officially "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" and unofficially it is clearly "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY (ARMY, NAVY, CG, MARINES, AF)." There is some indication that the Fund's organizers feel that benefits have to go "for the children" and that's why gay men and lesbian partners can't have benefits - and to get to that they are going to use State laws to stop funds from being distributed therefore. There appears to be no analysis as to whether or not the gay victims left children behind. Nor any consideration of the fact that many tried to adopt but homophobia has left their never adopted children in orphange facilities or state homes. In this country, more respect was paid to men and women of color in 1855 than a gay man or woman in the service of this country today. Gay men and lesbians are far more reviled, even if they happen to be one who, like , saved you from many tons of flaming gasoline and saved our entire government and ways of life on September 11. Thank you so much for your moving lip service to . Perhaps if you meant it, you would follow up. REMAINING TEXT OMITTED Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-16 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 dojR000986.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. 2002-03-16