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. Tuesday, January 22, 2002 5:53 PM Victim Compensation The Victim Compensation Program is a B ? A ? D, bad idea! I have no doubt that the government has good intentions and is motivated for all the right reasons, but this program is not the answer. It is not right. It has no precedent. And it is unfair to all the victims and all the families of victims before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Believe me when I say I grieve deeply for all the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. I served 21 years in the U.S. military and I know the sorrow and pain these families must be feeling, but consider these points before the government (albeit with good intentions) sets out to make perhaps thousands of next of kin/families millionaires courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers. 1. How much monetary compensation should the government provide to families who may also receive life insurance benefits? 2. How much monetary compensation should the government provide to families who may also have investments and savings at their disposal? 3. How much monetary compensation should the government provide to families who may also receive monetary awards from any of the various non-profit, charitable, philanthropic, or assistance organizations that have raised large sums of money and are distributing it to the victims? families? 4. Is it really the governments responsibility (and is it the fair/right thing to do) to make all these families (potential) millionaires? 5. How much compensation is too much? 6. When has this been done in the past? 7. What is the precedent are we setting? 8. This type of compensation has never been awarded to the families of military personnel who died in the line of duty. Admittedly, military personnel know the risk when they put on the uniform. Innocent civilians died on September 11, 2001. But are the families of military personnel any less worthy? U.S. military personnel are dying right now in the war on terrorism. Their families will get SGLI. Their families won?t be made millionaires. 9. Shouldn?t the American people take care of these families (voluntarily and to the degree they are comfortable with) through their donations to the various philanthropic organizations or through direct assistance to these families? This shouldn?t involve the government. Let the people handle it. If the government wants to help, then do whatever is necessary to ensure this kind of attack never happens again. 10. These families deserve our help, our care, and our assistance. Not a free ride for life (courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers). This program is a slap in the face to all the victims? families before September 11, 2001. It also serves to trivialize the lives of the victims of the terrorist attacks by attempting to assign a monetary value to their lives through the use of a mathematical equation (or worse yet by assigning it an arbitrary monetary value). Don?t let your sympathy and zeal to help the families of the terrorist attacks misguide you into doing something inappropriate. This program is wrong! Individual Comment Bowdoinham, ME September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-22 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 dojN002320.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. 2002-01-22