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. Monday, March 18, 2002 4:14 PM compensation for gay 9/11 victims To: 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 Director Zwick, I am ashamed for my country on learning that gay 9/11 victims are being denied compensation by the Department of Justice, while even fetuses and illegal aliens are going to benefit. Since fetuses, under the law, have no clear status as human persons, this decision sends a message that gay people have even less status than fetuses. In other words, the United States government feels it can decide whose lives are not worth bothering with, i.e. "subhuman." The problem with this message is that it eventually backfires on a nation, leading to widespread and shameful crimes against certain groups of people. Today, it is we gay people who are being officially devalued and declared "subhuman" by the Justice Department. Tomorrow other groups will be declared "subhuman" as well. It's a slippery slope that the United States government ventures onto at its peril. As someone of native American descent, I must remind you that, just a century and a half ago, native American tribes were officially viewed as subhuman, not worth any human-rights consideration, by the U.S. government, who carried on a war of extermination against the tribes, even against native women and children, with the official policy that "nits make lice". This policy led to shocking atrocities and other types of crimes against native peoples during the 1800s and well into the 1900s. Ditto African-Americans, Chinese, Jews and other ethnic and religious groups, who were similarly denied all kinds of personhood rights under U.S. law. The historical "nonperson" list is long -- it included women, people who were mentally ill, and others. Spare us your excuses that you must consider the limits of state law. Any intelligent person can see that the U.S. government takes this position on the 9/11 fund because of political pressures from the religious right, who want gay people to be denied any legal status as persons. Paradoxically, it is also the religious right who demand that fetuses be given full status as persons, so they can push ahead with their agenda of denying reproductive choice to all U.S. women. I think it's pathetic and shameful that you, and the Justice Department, would toady to the religious right in this way. It's doubly pathetic and shameful because your department supposedly exists to protect "justice" in America. I hope you will have the courage to rethink your policy -- to resist these political pressures, and grant gay victims of 9/11 the personhood of benefits, equal to all others who receive them. Sincerely yours, Individual Comment Beverly Hills, CA FOR THE MEMORY OF: And so many more... September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-18 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 dojR002014.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. 2002-03-18