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, February 16, 2002 3:04 PM Final Interim Rule Comments Dear Mr. Feinberg, I recently attended a meeting with you and families and survivors of the WTC tragedy. I commend you on the time you are taking to personally meet with families in each state to provide information and answer questions about the Victim Compensation Fund. You mentioned that in cases in which the victim died intestate, you would rely on the laws of the state in which the decedent resided for distribution of funds. In California, this would preclude heterosexual or homosexual domestic partners from collecting any funds because California does not recognize common law marriages or gay marriages. While defaulting to State law is the easiest way to administer the distribution of funds, it doesn't always reflect the reality of the way a person lived or what that person would have wanted (which can be ascertained by other documents besides a will or marriage certificate). It also doesn't take into consideration the fact that a person who has an "estate" of say $25,000 makes different decisions from someone who has an "estate" of the magnitude proposed under the Special Fund. My fiance who died on UA Flight and I lived together for 11 years and were planning to marry on July 4, 2002. At the time of his death, his "estate" was substantially less than $100,000 (therefore would not go into probate) so he didn't feel the need to do a will. He died believing that I would be provided for to the best his abilities at the time by naming me as sole beneficiary of his life insurance and pension plans. At the time of his death, this special fund did not exist, therefore he made no provision for it. I believe that the reason why so many people who died in the WTC tragedy were intestate is because they, like , did not have the substantial estates that the US Government is now granting them. If people had known the sums of money involved, most would have designated how the money should be distributed. Given the unique, unforeseeable circumstances regarding the creation of these funds, I think we should apply common sense to how the funds should be distributed. If an adult person was in a long-term committed relationship and had designated their partner as the sole beneficiary of their life insurance and pension benefits, it seems pretty obvious what that person would have wanted to do with these funds, had he known about them at the time of his death. The simple reliance on state law for a situation that the decedent could not have anticipated and which would have affected his decisions, is a cruel game of "gotcha" for those of us who either didn't make it to the altar in time or who, because of antiquated marriage laws, weren't allowed to go to the altar to begin with. A possible way to distribute the economic loss portion of Victim Compensation Funds is to do it in the same ratio that funds from other sources were distributed to the decedent's heirs. Since pain and suffering can not be measured, those funds should be distributed evenly amongst the heirs. For example, let's say the Fund calculates a total net economic loss benefit of $100,000 and a pain and suffering loss of $90,000. The family already received $10,000 as follows: $5,000 life insurance proceeds to A $2,500 remainder assets to B $2,500 remainder assets to C The fund would pay out the $100,000 as follows: $80,000 to A $55,000 to B $55,000 to C You stated that you wanted to distribute funds in a way that was fair. If that is the case, then it is only fair to consider the reality of the way in which U.S. citizens choose to live their lives. We are not a perfect people, nor are we cookie cutter images of one another. What constitutes "family" is different for each of us. All we can do is look at the way a person lived his life, recognize what was important to him, and not penalize him or his loved ones for things beyond his control. Respectfully yours, Individual Comment San Diego, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-02-16 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 dojP000521.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. 2002-02-16