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<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="25670" 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/25670?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-03T15:35:12-04:00">
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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="320800">
            <text>
Friday, December 21, 2001 10:20 AM
Equal Access


December  21, 2001

Dear Mr. Kenneth Zwick,

I write as a member of the worldwide human rights movement, Amnesty
International, in support of equal access to benefits under the September
11 Victims Relief Fund for all victims, regardless of sexual orientation or
marital status.  As you know, the United States has committed to uphold
international human rights standards, including the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, which prohibit arbitrary discrimination.
  
As you consider rules for administering the relief fund, please apply basic
international human rights standards and the general principle of equality
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.  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 the
emotional bonds of family deserves help in this time of need."

Many lesbian and gay people were killed in the September 11th attacks.
Since then, lesbian and gay surviving partners of those killed have had
mixed results in obtaining equal treatment 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 - affected by the human
rights tragedy of September 11 are treated with dignity and equality. 

Thank you for considering my concerns. I look forward to hearing from you
about your efforts to ensure that all surviving victims of the September 11
attacks have equal access to the relief fund.


Sincerely,

Individual Comment
New York, NY 
 
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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="320801">
            <text>2001-12-21</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
    </elementContainer>
  </itemType>
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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="320802">
              <text>dojN000398.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="320803">
              <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="320804">
              <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="320805">
              <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="320806">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="320807">
              <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="320808">
              <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="320809">
              <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="320810">
              <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="320811">
              <text>2001-12-21</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
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  </elementSetContainer>
</item>
