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            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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                <text>Department of Justice Emails</text>
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            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
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                <text>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.</text>
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        <description>The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end.</description>
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            <text>
Monday, March 11, 2002 5:14 PM
Discrimination against gay/lesbian heroes


Mr. President:

Please do not permit the comments which Mr. Kenneth Feinberg, the head of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, made in an appearance on the Sunday, March 10 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press", to stand as administration policy:
 "[Gays and lesbians are] left out of my program to the extent that their own state doesn't include them. I cannot get into a position in this program, which has a one-and-a-half or two-year life start second-guessing what the state of New York or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the state of Virginia or New Jersey, how they treat same-sex partners, domestic live-ins, etc. I simply say this: What does your state law say about who is eligible? If your state law makes you eligible, I will honor state law. If it doesn't, I go with the state. Otherwise, Tim, I would find myself getting sued in every state by people claiming that I'm not following how the state distributes money. I can't get into that local battle. I've got to rely on state law." - Kenneth Feinberg on NBC's "Meet the Press," March 10, 2002

This policy would effectively eliminate all gay couples from compensation. 

Victims and heroes should not be abandoned because of their sexual orientation.  This is a Federal matter, and is not under the jurisdiction of the states.  The Federal government, and the Executive Branch in particular, should be taking the lead in demonstrating to the world that our system will protect its citizens, and not exclude any group to satisfy the political agenda of a few.

Individual Comment
Buford GA 
 
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        <name>September 11 Email: Date</name>
        <description>The local time and date when the message was written.</description>
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            <text>2002-03-11</text>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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              <text>dojR000252.xml</text>
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      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
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          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
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              <text>approved</text>
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          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="295376">
              <text>full</text>
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          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
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              <text>yes</text>
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          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
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              <text>yes</text>
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        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
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              <text>born-digital</text>
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          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
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              <text>email</text>
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        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
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              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
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          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
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              <text>no</text>
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          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
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              <text>2002-03-11</text>
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