dojR001628.xml

dojR001628.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-03-16

Saturday, March 16, 2002 5:44 PM
9/11 fund


Dear Mr. President:

It is with great honor that I feel that I am permitted to write to you -- and it is with great sadness that I approach you with what I see as a great injustice. The 9/11 fund set up by The United States Congress has developed into an all inclusive fund that will aid the many thousands of persons who died in the flames of hate. These persons were the innocent victims of the "evil ones" and each one of them were heroes in some way.

Now we see that the 9/11 fund is going to be able to try in some way to financially remunerate their families and loved ones. It is impressive that the United States of America has seen fit to honor these persons, making payments to their families, making payments to illegal aliens, making payments to as yet unborn children. Each claimant comes to the table regardless of circumstances and is heard. It is our attempt as a caring and loving society to help these survivors to begin again. In all of this we have attempted to make sure that the hyphenated American disappears. We are not dealing with Italian-American or Irish-American or African-American -- we are dealing with Americans. And it is an honorable thing, a position that is long overdue.

Yet Mr. President, all of this lacks one thing -- the gay and lesbian persons still are hyphenated. For in the 9/11 fund they do not count. Their lives do not mean anything to the Federally Mandated Fund. Mr. Feinberg has stated emphatically that the partners of gay and lesbian people who died on 9/11 will not be included. How terribly sad that a segment of the heroes of 9/11 are to be left out. Considered as non-victims, considered as if they didn't even exist, as if they were not a victim of the "evil ones" as if their lives did not count and that their families are not even worthy of consideration by the government of The United States of America.

Mr. Feinberg's reasoning is that if state law does not recognize these relationships there will be no payments made to survivors of gay and lesbian persons. Yet how ironic that the Fund is set up by the Federal Government -- the Fund for 9/11 comes from federal funds. It makes me so very sad to realize that my government does not even care that gay and lesbians exist -- that the gay and lesbian's life isn't worth any kind of recognition, that all of the citizens of this vast country that are gay and lesbian don't have any status with those that died on 9/11.

Please Mr. President, I beg you to make the first move. Open your heart as you have so many times since 9/11 and see that these persons are also included. Your doing so will make the statement that ALL persons within this vast and diverse county have a place -- that those who died in 9/11 are all looked at as Americans equally deserving of respect, care, concern and nondiscriminatory recognition and thanks through the 9/11 Fund.

I appreciate this opportunity to write to you. I prayerfully await a moment when this great country will stand up and do the right thing one more time -- recognize all Americans and also recognize them in a truly inclusive and nondiscriminatory 9/11 Fund.

Sincerely

Individual Comment
Lake Worth, FL

2002-03-16