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. Thursday, March 14, 2002 8:03 PM Discrimination in 9/11 Fund To whom it may concern: I am sending this letter to the White House as well as those in charge of the September 11th Victims' Fund, as I feel both should be very concerned with the matters at hand. My name is . I am a 17-year old high school student in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. I recently received an email from a gay rights newsletter to which I subscribe that brought something terrible to my attention. Apparently gays and lesbians have been deemed less worthy of compensation payments than other Americans, even those living here illegally. In a statement on Meet The Press recently, the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund's head Kenneth Feinberg stated, "[Gays and lesbians are] left out of my program to the extent that their own state doesn't include them. I cannot get into a position in this program, which has a one-and-a-half or two-year life start second-guessing what the state of New York or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the state of Virginia or New Jersey, how they treat same-sex partners, domestic live-ins, etc. I simply say this: What does your state law say about who is eligible? If your state law makes you eligible, I will honor state law. If it doesn't, I go with the state." Since most states do not legally recognize gay relationships, and those that do usually do so only for state employees, this means that most homosexual victims of this horrible tragedy will receive less compensation than others, including those who violate U.S. law by living here illegally. While I do not feel that these people should be deprived of compensation, I feel that one cannot overlook one law and rigorously enforce another, especially in the case of a tragedy such as this. , a name with which you may be familiar, was gay. He was also a passenger on United Flight 93, and one of the people responsible for bringing down that plane over Pennsylvania instead of on its alleged intended target, the U.S. Congress building. Because of a stubbornness and unwillingness to lose popularity with those who do not agree with lifestyle, it appears his family will be given less compensation for their loss than those of some of the other heroes involved. Senator John McCain himself stated, "I never knew . But I wish I had. I know he was a good son and friend, a good rugby player, a good American, and an extraordinary human being. He supported me, and his support now ranks among the greatest honors of my life. I wish I had known before September 11 just how great an honor his trust in me was. I wish I could have thanked him for it more profusely than time and circumstances allowed. But I know it now. And I thank him with the only means I possess, by being as good an American as he was. "America will overcome these atrocities. We will prevail over our enemies. We will right this terrible injustice. And when we do, let us claim it as a tribute to our liberty, and to and all those who died to defend it." This is no fringe radical crying out for heroism to be rewarded, but a previous presidential hopeful. Please put a good deal of thought into the matter and reconsider the decision to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference when giving compensation payments for victims of the horrible event that befell our country on September 11th. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Sincerely, Individual Comment Natick, MA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-03-14 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 dojR000803.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. 2002-03-14