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. Friday, November 09, 2001 12:29 PM BPC Victims To: Department of Justice Date: November 9, 2001 Re: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 I would like to echo the below comments made by my fellow Battery Park City resident. My husband, infant son, and I also live in BPC and absolutely feel that we have suffered greatly from this terrible tragedy. While we feel fortunate to have survived the attacks (I was at home, recovering from a cesarean, watching the whole thing from my living room window, while my husband was at work in the WTC), we nevertheless find that our lives have been very much compromised by the events of September 11th. Life in BPC these days is nothing less than depressing and distressing. Since my husband's office was destroyed in the attacks, he now has to commute out of Manhattan every day to his new temporary office in Queens. This commute not only takes extra time away from the family (the entire purpose for us living here was that my husband could be close to home and would not have to commute), but it has added commuting costs to our already strained budget. Where his permanent office will be is anyone's guess. In fact, whether or not he will have a job come the new year is also in question as his company is currently laying off staff and planning more layoff's for later this year. Although I had planned on going back to work in January, the events of September 11th have made the prospect very unlikely in the near future. Since the air quality is often so bad that I cannot leave my home, I am confined to the apartment with my infant son. Being a very active and athletic person, this is very difficult for me as I am sure it is not ideal for my son to be deprived of daily fresh air. Although our pediatrician's office is in Tribecca and used to be a ten-minute drive from home, I now have to give myself at least one hour to get there because of all the closed roads and police blockades. This is typical of any shopping or errand-running that I have to do. Since our building has told us that we will have to pay a two-month penalty if we leave, we cannot afford to move. Even if we could, we do not know where we would go as we have always considered this neighborhood our home. This is only a brief sampling of how our lives have been affected. I could certainly provide many more examples if necessary. Please contact me and let me know if we qualify as crime victims or if you need any more information to make such a determination. Thank you. Individual Comment Attachment 1: Date: November 6, 2001 Re: September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Below are my comments in response to the Department of Justice website soliciting comments and opinions regarding the proposed regulations and processes for implementing the Victim Compensation Fund. ************************ My understanding is that victims of the September 11th tragedy are defined as families of those who perished as well as individuals who are now unemployed (or whose businesses sustained prolonged closures) as a result of the attacks. Without a doubt these people have suffered the most, and will continue to suffer for a significant period of time. However, there is a population of individuals who I do not believe qualify under the accepted definition of victims... but these are people whose lives have been turned upside down since September 11th. These "non-victims" live in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero. I speak from personal experience. My apartment is directly across the street from "the site" (or the sight) of the collapsed towers. While my apartment sustained only minor damage, it is never-the-less contaminated with dust and debris which must be removed by a company specializing in handling Hazardous Materials. I was lucky. Many of my neighbors found that their apartments caught on fire when flaming debris was jettisoned across the street from the World Trade Center. For a variety of reasons, everyone in the neighborhood was prohibited from re-occupying their apartments for a period of time FBI and police designated the area a crime scene. Emergency and rescue workers commandeered buildings and streets. For a time, the area belonged to the authorities... and rightly so. In the past month or so, many buildings have been readied for re-occupation, but many in the neighborhood cannot yet return because particulate matter in the air (emanating from the still-buring fires) causes respiratory distress, nosebleeds, asthma, headaches, etc. While we have been assured by the EPA that the air poses no long-term health risks, residents are suffering from symptoms that make the area a short-term health nightmare. My particular building has not yet been re-opened. The eastern-facing facade of the building sustained severe damage and must be replaced before those of us on the east side of the building can re-occupy our apartments. In the meantime, our landlord is demanding that we have our belongings decontaminated, packed and removed from the premises. We have been told that we will not have access to our apartments for up to six more months. While some downtown residents were smart enough to purchase homeowners or renters insurance, many, many were uninsured. Every uninsured person has had significant out-of-pocket expenses: temporary housing, HazMat decontamination, the cost of HEPA air filters (recommended by the Department of Health, OSHA and the EPA), extraordinary meal charges, dry cleaning, etc., etc. A subset of the population have incurred (or will incur) additional expenditures: moving and storage costs, medical (and psycological) bills, charges to replace damaged property and the like. Although there are serious financial considerations for downtown residents, the emotional toll is hard to quantify. Many have been so traumatized that their professional performance and personal relationships have suffered. Our once tranquil neighborhood has suffered too. Transportation options are significantly reduced (and will be for years to come). Goods and services are greatly diminished (many stores have permanently abandoned the area because they relied heavily on the patronage of those who worked and visited the World Trade Center complex). Air quality is compromised (we've been told that our children should not exert themselves when playing outdoors.) Many have chosen to move to other parts of the City. Others have chosen to stay and rebuild the neighborhood. All have suffered. We are victims too. September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-09 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 dojW000292.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. 2001-11-09