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. January 15, 2002 Dear Mr. Zwick: Before the Victim's Compensation Fund Rules are made final, I feel compelled to put some of my thoughts, regarding those rules, on paper and send them on to you. I will endeavor to set my thoughts down clearly and concisely. But first I need to tell you that my 28 year-old son, , is among the lost. He was an Equities Trader at and had been employed there for the last 5 years. He had started at the lowest rung of the ladder and by diligence a bright mind and much hard work, had just started to hit his stride in his chosen field. 1. I ask you to please reconsider the amount currently being considered for pain and suffering(Non-Economic Loss). Please realize that many, many people located in offices on floors above the point of impact were alive for at least one hour, and in some cases, even longer, It is very apparent because "911" calls were being received well beyond one hour after impact and almost right up until 1 WTC collapsed. This is a matter of public record contained in the logs of the "911" calls received by the NYC Police Department on September 11, 2001. Portions of those logs were published in the NY Daily News on Sunday, September 30, 2001, as well as in other publications since. Our "trapped" loved ones spent that time fully realizing that they could go neither up nor down to save themselves. They also knew that no one was going to be able to reach them to save them. There are records of phone conversations they made wherein they state the conditions around them-- heavy smoke, sections of floors collapsing around them, difficulty breathing, people falling sick and passing out, etc. They were begging for help. And they were terrified. The hour or more that they lived until 1 WTC collapsed was more than an eternity of "suffering" for them. A mere $250,000 trivializes the agony and minimizes their pain and suffering, 100 times $250,000 would still not be enough to compensate our loved ones for the pain and suffering they endured. We cannot simply "blow off" the enormity and horror of how they suffered. True, there is no amount of money that can equal their pain and suffering . But does that mean that since there is no number that can -2- compensate them for their pain and suffering, that to only give them a minimum number is fair? Does that not minimize the horror they endured? We can not lose sight of the fact that these people were civilians. To be put into this type of danger "on the job" was certainly not on their job descriptions. So please increase the Non-Economic award to reflect the true pain and suffering that our loved ones endured. It was simply unimaginable. 2. Please use the wages earned for 1999, 2000 and an annualized income for 2001(We were already three-quarters of the way into the year so please do not disregard the earnings of that year.) when computing awards for the victims. Many of these victims worked very hard to make huge strides in their salaries from year to year, so please do not demean that ambition and their hard work by totally disregarding 2001's earnings. 3. Please do not average those 3 years when computing the awards. Instead please make note that most of the incomes of employees tended to increase yearly by many more percentage points that the national average of 5.5%-6.0% as noted on statistics produced by the Bureau of Standards. It was common for salaries of young, up and coming Traders and Brokers at to increase by $20,000 to $30,000 and possibly even more per year until a very substantial salary level was reached. Please take into consideration the way salaries rise in the brokerage industry. The salary escalation for a middle management executive in corporate America would differ greatly from the salary escalation of a young up and coming trader or broker in the financial services industry. And lest we forget, they were targeted simply because they worked in the financial services industry. They sacrificed their lives for their country and their country cannot think so little of them as to demean the value of those lives. 4. Please configure your charts to show the typical award for a high wage earner. Please bear in mind that many of the employees (both traders and stock brokers) earned more than your present cap of $231,000. They should not be penalized because they earned salaries higher than 98% of the country. These people worked hard to provide for their families and had they been allowed to live out their lives, in many cases, would have provided very substantially for their families well into the future. Their awards should reflect that. One very important last thought that I must leave you with is that our loved ones worked at jobs that were not in the military of law enforcement fields. They were ordinary, everyday citizens, just like you and me, who went to work every day to put food on their tables and a roof over their heads. They were doing their jobs to the best of their ability in order to provide for their families. And those jobs did -3- not ask them to put their lives on the line. Yet that morning that was exactly what they did. They put their lives on the line, merely by working for a financial services company in the most well-known financial area of one of the greatest cities in the world. They paid the ultimate price for living out the American Dream. Please do not punish them for that. The terrorists have already done that. I'm sorry this letter is so long; and I'm also sorry that I wrote it in plain English. But I just needed to tell you how I felt and to tell you also that your decisions and your tables and charts affect the lives of thousands of people, including many, many children. I will pray that you will be guided by your conscience to be fair to the families of the victims, taking into consideration how they would have provided for these same families had their lives not been cut short by an act of terrorism that totally destroyed much more than two buildings. Sincerely, Individual Comment Brooklyn, NY Kenneth L. Zwick Director, Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20530 September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-15 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 dojN002443.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. 2002-01-15