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, December 22, 2001 12:58 PM Please help ensure equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund, regardless of sexual orientation or m... December 22, 2001 Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick, I am writing to show my strong support for equal access to benefits under the September 11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims of the attacks, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. As a member of the global human rights group Amnesty International, I am committed to ensuring respect for the basic human rights of people without discrimination and feel the United States should honor its commitment to uphold international human rights standards. I hardly need remind you that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights prohibit arbitrary discrimination. I would ask that you apply the same basic international human rights standards and the general principle of equality as you consider rules for administering the relief fund. 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, you will be adhering to the principles of equality. 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 emotional bonds of family [deserving of] help in this time of need." For every lesbian and gay person taken from us in the September 11th attacks, surviving partners of the deceased have had very 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. I thank you for your time and eagerly look forward to hearing from you on the steps you intend to take to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11 attacks have equal access to the relief fund. Sincerely, Individual Comment Somerville, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-22 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 dojN000704.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. 2001-12-22