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, November 07, 2001 2:21 PM from BPC Resident We are all thankful to be alive. We mourn for those who have lost their lives. We cry for all of those who are heroes, and workers, and lovers of our beautiful city and who are no longer here. We especially cry for their family and friends who are left behind. We also mourn the loss of our neighborhood. We have lived there almost ten years. Every day we knew how lucky we were to claim Battery Park City as our community. It was peaceful and vibrant, a small town in a busy city, and the World Trade Center was the hub of the wheel. It was a measure of the clouds and weather, it reflected the light of the sun and sky, and as you explored the depths of the financial district or Tribeca or China Town, it was the beacon that brought you home again. My children (boys ages 6 and 8) attend PS 89. We were proud to be part of the very first kindergarten class there and watched with pride and amazement as the school grew. We knew we helped build it, and put books on the library shelves, and make it into this incredible happy center of our children's outside world. It was just after I dropped my children at school that the first plane hit the North tower. I was just outside the Winter Garden by the Financial Center, so I ran closer to the marina to escape any falling debris. I was outside of the Gateway Plaza complex when the second plane hit. You knew then that it was then end of the world as you knew it. We were being attacked in our very backyard. The people jumping from the towers confirmed how helpless we all were. The dove and tumbled out of the inferno they were trapped in. I wondered about the wonderful firemen in the ladder company right across the street, (they used to let my kids come in and look at the trucks and gear, they were our heroes already), and if they were OK. Little did we know what was in store for New York's Bravest. I was with my neighbors helping them comfort their toddlers, and we were all trying to figure out how to get to our kids at school. My husband appeared (he works at the and was running across West St. when the second plane hit). We went to our apartment, closed our windows, grabbed some money, and decided to try and get to the kids at school. We were on our way when I looked up at the burning tower, and saw it start to collapse. We ran behind a building kept our heads down and pulled our shirts over our faces. As the darkness lifted and the smoke cleared, we were told to evacuate to the South. We washed the soot out of our mouth and nose and eyes, and walked south. We were able to more easily outrun the collapse of the second tower, and stood at the South marina as our friends and neighbors boarded tugs and barges. Our children were of course our first priority and we would not get on any boat until their whereabouts and safety could be confirmed. Since radios and phones were out, no one knew. My husband and I turned and walked against the throngs of people heading south to the evacuation point, and walked along our beautiful esplanade, now thick with soot and papers. As we got closer to ground zero and the financial center, the papers were more concentrated, the soot deeper, and the pieces of debris larger and more disturbing. The evidence of human loss was illustrated by the many shoes that littered the area. They were everywhere. We walked by the smoldering, blackened Winter Garden. Just an hour or so earlier, it was a glowing, brilliant centerpiece to the World Financial Center. Just across the street was the hold in the sky where the World Trade Center once stood. We located our children at a public school in the West Village. They were being evacuated as the first tower fell. My younger son cried as he saw this and said he was worried about us. My older son was witness to the burning of the first tower out his classroom window before the shades were finally drawn. We will return to our neighborhood when the fires are out. I cannot bring my children home to a place where the fires burn across the street and the air they breathe is of questionable quality. They have also both had respiratory issues that have required hospitalization in the past, and I certainly will not take any additional risks with their health, physical or emotional. I think we are all lucky. We have weathered this together as a family intact. Our home still stands. Our children are old enough to understand what happened, but perhaps just young enough to be spared the huge ramifications of the loss of life and economic repercussions. They know their favorite store is gone (Borders Books), and many of their friends have moved away and will not be returning. There have been few nightmares and we all support each other. That is a lot to be grateful for. We have received financial assistance and we have explored various funds that are available. There is no one not affected by this. There are many who suffered an unfathonable loss. We only lost our community, our sense of safety and well being. We were witness to an attack of terrorism across the street from where we live. We ran from a crumbling tower and were enveloped in it's ash and darkness. What is compensation for that? Is there compensation for that? More than anything, this exercise has been cathartic. There are hundreds, thousands of stories for those who have been touched by this. I hope whoever reads this gains some small insight into what out world was, and what it is now. Thank you. Individual Comment New York, New York September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-07 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 dojW000280.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. 2001-11-07