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. Tuesday, November 06, 2001 11:20 AM Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund To: Attorney General John D. Ashcroft Sir: It has already been publicly stated by a respected volunteer charged with distributing funds to a victim of the Pentagon incident that the victim said upon receiving his check, "I don't deserve all of this money". The volunteer came forward with this statement (sans the victim's name) because it troubled him that he had assisted another human being in profiting from the loss of a loved one. Clearly this caused emotional hardship to both parties. Give the American public some credit for their integrity. I live in Worcester, MA and was (and still am) a firsthand witness to the outpouring of support for the 6 firefighters' families here. I can say with certainty that those families profited from their loss. It is a shame that the shock of that incident was built up to such an unrealistic degree. I suppose I should say that my nature is that of a giver. I have given a great deal of money and time to worthy causes in my day. So much so at times that some recipients of my graciousness have mistakenly taken me for a wealthy man not realizing the extent of my sacrifice. But I continue to give nevertheless because it is in my heart to do so. I did not give to the families of those firefighters because to put it all too simplistically; enough is enough. People die every day. Firefighters die premature deaths on a regular basis but their survivors' lives are not enriched by their death and rightfully so. Why were these firefighters different? The magic (?) of the media. I instead gave to an organization which supports the homeless here. Their need was far greater. The grief of the public in regard to Sept. 11 has already been exploited to the umteenth degree due in large part to the fact that the Red Cross and others have failed to inform the public as to the amount of money they would need to compensate these families. There is no excuse for not coming up with this target figure. It promoted a glut of giving to such an extent that it is out of proportion with the event. A journalist recently brought up an excellent point. Will the public be so generous next time? This so far is an isolated, unique incident. What will be given for the next catastrophe--say, a major earthquake for instance? It has already been reported that other charities are suffering losses because of this overcompensation. When will it stop? This mess is no less than the emotional rape of the public during a time when their collective hearts have been crushed by such an unprecedented catastrophe. I have such a pain in my heart from seeing this type of behavior on such a large scale twice in my lifetime. It has been wisely said that if you leave a dollar on the kitchen table then a child will be tempted to steal it. It is better not to leave it there in the first place. Such is the fragility of human goodness. No matter what the law states "explicitly" or what it doesn't state the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund is a charitable act and as such should be allocated only to those who show a need. The very existence of this fund is questionable. (I confess that I don't fully understand how the U.S. government is responsible in any concrete way for the suffering of the survivors.) The Red Cross was dead wrong in not participating in a coordination of benefits with other charities and if possible it should be forced to do so. And as far as the question of whether a payee should be registered and have his/her disbursements tracked or not; I believe this to be an absolute necessity given the unprecedented circumstances with which we're faced. "Double dipping", whether intentional or not, cannot be tolerated and I believe that all of the organizations involved with distributing funds have a responsibility to prevent it no matter what. And in case you're wondering; no, I did not send a contribution to the Sept. 11 survivors. It was painfully clear to me early on that most people had already been duped into sending too much and I refused to be counted as one of them. As previously mentioned, many other charities are feeling the pinch as they are pushed into the shadow of Sept 11. My check, I'm sure, will come in handy to one of them. God bless you as you struggle with this issue. I pray that He will lead you to the right path as He has me. Kindest regards Individual Comment Worcester, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-06 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 dojW000773.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. 2001-11-06