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, January 02, 2002 7:35 PM Interim Final Rule I have been keeping up with the comments submitted here and it seems that the majority fall into 3 categories: (a) "form letters" lobbying for the inclusion of the gay/lesbian domestic partner as 'eligible' (b) family members of a deceased victim who want MORE, MORE, MORE! (c) the 'non-recipient taxpayer' - who find the amounts too high and the greed inexcusable As far as (a), I say "go with state law". If gay/lesbian partnerships are treated the SAME as marriages by their state, then they should be here too. As should "common law" marriages. But "treated the SAME" should be all-encompassing - the state supports your right to participate in the "benefits" of recognition of your partnership, but also defines the restrictions/responsibilities on ending the relationship. If the state does not have any laws addressing terminating the partnership (divorce, child custody, probate, etc.), then it is NOT THE SAME as 'regular marriages', and those partnerships should not be recognized here either. As far as (b), based on their behavior I would not give family members of a deceased victim anything. They have forfeited there 'right' to our compassion by being so unwilling to accept it graciously, respectfully, and QUIETLY. I keep hearing/reading statements of how 'we will be forced to sue' because the offered compensation is so limited. This is nothing more than a blatant threat (extortion?)- give me more or I'll sue everybody. Cut them off and let them go to court. Use the taxpayers money ONLY for the living - those victims who survived, but were injured (as defined in this rule). If you ABSOLUTELY INSIST on providing compensation to the 'family members of a deceased victim', I think you should go through all of your calculations, come up with one total, put it a pot, and then let them all fight over how to split it amongst themselves - ANY WAY THEY WANT TO! As far as (c), obviously I agree! I do not like the precedent being set. I don't think it will be followed through on. I think Congress acted impulsively when enacting this. It was only 2 weeks after the event - too soon to be making such dramatic gestures. The whole country was still a little irrational/panicky about where things were headed and the number-of-victims-estimates were still inflated by over 100%. Now that things have settled down a bit and everyone, including Congress, has had some time to digest the event, perhaps you should go back to them and ask 'Do you really think this is a good idea?'. I hope they would respond 'No'. Just me - Individual Comment Denver, CO September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-02 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 dojN001306.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. 2002-01-02