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          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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              <elementText elementTextId="264506">
                <text>Department of Justice Emails</text>
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          <element elementId="41">
            <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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    <name>September 11 Email</name>
    <description/>
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        <name>September 11 Email: Body</name>
        <description>The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end.</description>
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            <text>

December 13, 2001


Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg
September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

To Mr. Feinberg:

I am writing to urge you to ensure fair treatment for all surviving families of the tragedy on September 11th, 
including the children and families of low-wage workers and gay and lesbian families.

Under traditional rules based on lost wages, the survivors of a bond trader earning millions of dollars per
year might receive thousands of times as much compensation as the survivors of a dishwasher in one of the
restaurants destroyed. Justice requires looking far beyond the last paycheck to the inherent worth of all
those killed, so that a high minimum compensation level is set to lessen the disparities. It would be a double
blow to the survivors to first lose their loved one and then watch as most of the taxpayer money went to those
who were already well off in the first place.

The second major issue has to do with recognizing the legitimacy of gay and lesbian relationships and 
families. Gay and lesbian families are especially vulnerable when one partner is killed. Because the option of
marriage is unavailable, these families may find themselves in the traumatic predicament of having to prove
that their union is legitimate. Fortunately both the Red Cross and the State of New York have already 
announced that they will not discriminate against gay and lesbian families. The Department of Justice should
do the same.

Thank you for considering my comments. I look forward to hearing how you will act on these very important 
issues.

Sincerely,

Individual Comment
Austin, TX


 
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      <element elementId="66">
        <name>September 11 Email: Date</name>
        <description>The local time and date when the message was written.</description>
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            <text>2001-12-13</text>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="345738">
              <text>dojA001802.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
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    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
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        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="345739">
              <text>approved</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345740">
              <text>full</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="54">
          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345741">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345742">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345743">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="345744">
              <text>email</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345745">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="60">
          <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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        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="345747">
              <text>2001-12-13</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
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