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, March 16, 2002 2:20 PM Equal treatment of PROVEN domestic partners. We have recently heard that survivors of gay domestic partnerships will not be compensated in the same manner as other survivors. We must admit that we had grave reservations about the entire subject when we first heard of it - after all, other than employment and/or private insurance benefits, members of the armed services, others killed in similar circumstances, etc. do not receive special benefits paid for by the taxpayers. However, because we realized that if compensation were left to the insurance companies, and/or the airlines, they'd be put out of business automatically, causing grave financial consequences - AND, when we realized that there would be many folks who'd been put into untenable financial situations by the loss of their breadwinner, we agreed that it was fair and proper to create a taxpayer fund for the survivors - NOT because money can replace a loved one, but because money can make their future lives easier. However, as gay persons (with 49 years of faithful committment under our belts,) we are outraged to hear that survivors of gay partnerships (people who ARE NOT PERMITTED TO MARRY,) would be thrown to the whim of state law - thereby not ensuring that they'd be equally compensated - or compensated AT ALL. We remind you that gay tax revenues are being used for the fund; that there are gay family units which have been equally disrupted by the 9/11 tragedy (1/2 of the mortgage payment gone, 1/2 of the rent payment gone, 1/2 of financial obligation payment gone, etc.,) and that as much as we approve of the scheme to indemnify the heterosexual survivors, we strongly protest anything other than equal treatment for homosexual survivors! Please do not fall upon the old saw that it is a state matter. THESE ARE FEDERAL FUNDS, IN A FEDERAL PROGRAM! And, please don't use the lame excuse that it is a state matter. If we didn't learn from the 50s that the federal government has the power and the obligation to force states to treat ALL citizens equally (soldiers in Arkansas, FBI in Alabama, etc.) then we've learned nothing. We implore you to right a wrong which is about to be perpetrated upon a viable, important segment of US society. Amend the guidelines to include provable gay and lesbian domestic partnerships in the compensation fund. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-16 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 dojR000965.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. 2002-03-16