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. Wednesday, January 23, 2002 5:49 PM Comments on Rules by Special Master Friday, January 18th, 2002 Gentlemen and Ladies, I am sure that I am not the first to state that the primary beneficiaries of the rules and the legislation are the airlines, the insurance industry and our government which failed in the protection of the life, liberty and property of the thousands of fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, nieces nephews, friends and neighbors who were publicly incinerated and physically assaulted by two 40,000 ton jet airliners which were murderously conflagrated upon their persons on September 11th. This tragedy not less horrific than the gas chambers of Hitler's Germany wrecked devastation into the lives of the victims families no less catastrophic and apocalyptic and painful than the collapse of the two 110 story buidings. I have witnessed first hand the psychological and emotional damage to my best friend and her daughter by this public event and know first hand the monetary losses in support , and the emotional damage from watching the events which has been brought upon these unlucky individuals. To begrudge them some financial recompense is wrong. To resent their complaints when most now are only beginning to go beyond the shock and reeling of the first months is inappropriate. A victim compensation fund should compensate victims and the Special Master entrusted with that charge should do all in his power on behalf of those victims.....not prove sway to political influences and pressures not to pay. The caps at around 3 million dollars no where approximate the sums of money any of these victims would receive in normal litigation ....what of the millions awarded for a scratched BMW.....and no normal litigation would deduct insurance or charity from its award. What became of the goal of dispensing with the costs and time of litigation. The capped amounts and the deductibles effectively relieve the United States and the elected officials from meaningfully recompensing the victims families. This is an injustice and not within the original intent of the legislation. Most individuals employed at the World Trade Center probably had insurance for their families at their own expense. If they received it as part of compensation they paid the appropriate taxes as a benefit computed as income. The insurance and charity should not be deductible. It is my impression that if a survey were taken of the 3000 individuals who died most would not be receiving anything more than a couple hundred thousand - not a meaningful sum- or expense to the taxpayers- under the current plan. Effectively the deductibles relieve the U.S. of responsibility to a majority of those who died. The Special Master should go back to Congress forthwith in accordance with his charge and seek amendment of the underlying legislation. All elected personnel who believe as they should that there must be recompense to those who suffered for all Americans must promptly amend the legislation to leave insurance and charity undeductible from any amount awarded. This legislation was signed into law within days of September 11th. It's errors can just as speedily be rectified!!!! The Special Master should also make provision more specific than turning over funds in some general way in accordance with state law to award as is normally done by a formula for the years of dependency for spouses and children thereby apportioning rather than further causing disintegration and damage to these families by potential disputes . Tort Reform to prevent excessive monetary judgments and a plan to be used in cases of mass injury should not begin with the families of those individuals who suffered the worst physical, psychological and financial harm ever sustained by human beings. The legislation should permit these individuals to bring suit as well against those terrorist organizations and individuals - whose funds have been frozen and any amounts ultimately awarded subrograted and allocated as to portions paid by the US through the victim compensation fund awards. For a country as rich as the United States and with the waste that we so wrongfully cause in spending unnecessarily - we are morally obligated if we truly believe as we should - that those who died were Heroes and patriots to fairly recompense the Horrors their families have endured, and will continue to endure for their remaining lives. Some of these costs should be born by taxpayers. Sincerely, Individual Comment Bronxville, New York September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-23 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 dojP000030.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. 2002-01-23