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. Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 On September 11, 2001, our government failed to protect the safety of American citizens and subsequently attempted to somewhat compensate terror victims and their families by establishing the Victim's Compensation Fund. The following comments reflect our dissatisfaction with the Fund as it stands in January, 2002 and the hope that our thoughts would be incorporated into the final proposal. a. Including pensions of the deceased victims as "collateral sources" against the settlement offered would leave most civil servants's families with little or no wrongful death compensation. Civil servants are typically on lower wage scales than those in private industry, but take pride in fulfilling vital services to their communities. As part of their overall compensation packages, they work for their pensions during their active duty so that they can rest assured that they and / or their families will be adequately provided for when their active duty ends. As families / friends of civil servants we view the inclusion of pension benefits as collateral sources as clear discrimination against blue-collar workers. b. Including life insurance policies as "collateral sources" discriminates against those who thoughtfully and responsibly provided for their families. c. Valuing the lives of our loved ones on a demographic chart is an insult to the dead. All human lives are precious and none are worth more than others, no matter how long the deceased lived or what his / her arbitrarily determined "earnings potential" was. d. Capping emotional pain and suffering at $250,000 is ridiculously low particularly in comparison to court-determined awards in similar cases. We are not seeking funds to replace the lives of our loved ones. We instead wish the federal government and the airlines to admit their careless roles in the wrongful death of Americans. We note that our U.S. Constitution has been violated in numerous ways, most importantly by the fact that our Congress passed a law reducing the airlines' liabilities after (ex post facto) the events of September 11, 2001, thus limiting our potential to gain suitable settlements in traditional court proceedings. Further, we are discouraged to know that an unelected and unaccountable official will determine our compensation. We note that Mr. Feinberg has an unsuitable historical record in similar proceedings such as "Agent Orange" cases in which he neglected to fairly compensate Vietnam War veterans. In this horrible time of grief and despair, our government has further victimized our families by infringing upon our civil rights. The government and media point to charity to compensate our families, yet fail to realize that such "awards" are often unequitable, poorly administered, and were not intended to take the place of negligent or punitive damages. We understand the long, uphill battle involved in changing a law and do not shy away from it. However, such proceedings would cause additional and prolonged pain to our traumatized families. At this time, we simply request that the Special Master take into account our above comments a-d. Sincerely, Individual Comment Seaford, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-12 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 dojP000609.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. 2002-03-12