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<item xmlns="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5" itemId="29804" public="1" featured="0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5 http://omeka.org/schemas/omeka-xml/v5/omeka-xml-5-0.xsd" uri="https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/29804?output=omeka-xml" accessDate="2026-04-26T14:17:46-04:00">
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        <description>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/.</description>
        <elementContainer>
          <element elementId="50">
            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="264506">
                <text>Department of Justice Emails</text>
              </elementText>
            </elementTextContainer>
          </element>
          <element elementId="41">
            <name>Description</name>
            <description>An account of the resource</description>
            <elementTextContainer>
              <elementText elementTextId="264507">
                <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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  <itemType itemTypeId="18">
    <name>September 11 Email</name>
    <description/>
    <elementContainer>
      <element elementId="65">
        <name>September 11 Email: Body</name>
        <description>The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="370408">
            <text>


TO:

Kenneth L. Zwick, Director
Office of Management Programs
Civil Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Main Building, Room 3140
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20530

In recent interviews, the head of September 11 Victim 
Compensation Fund (a fund created by Congress to help the
families of those who died on September 11) has made clear
that the partners of gay and lesbian heroes of September 11 
will not necessarily receive the same benefits as the spouses
of heterosexual victims of the horrible terror attacks.
 
I am outraged that gay and lesbian partners of those
who died on September 11 are not automatically going to 
receive the same benefits as heterosexual spouses.

Even fetuses and illegal aliens will be receiving benefits
under this problem. But when it comes to gay and lesbian
heroes of the day - &amp;nbsp who helped bring down the
flight in Pennsylvania, &amp;nbsp who died in the line of duty when the first tower fell,
and &amp;nbsp who was &amp;nbsp  of the plane that crashed
into the &amp;nbsp (there are many more) - we are told the law 
is the law and no exceptions can be made.

If September 11 has taught us anything, it is that our
patriotism and love of country transcend our differences and
unite us all. We were told that September 11  was the day 
that "hyphenated-Americans" were no more, and rather than
being, Italian-Americans, African-Americans or gay-Americans,

                         
                                        Mon, Mar 18, 2002 1:32 PM

we were now simply Americans, all of us together as one
American family. Apparently, that family just got a divorce.

The hyphens seem not to matter when our government want to 
use our heroism to inspire others, but when it comes time to 
actually aid the families of those heroes, the hyphens come 
back with a vengeance, and it seems that some American heroes 
are now more equal than others.

This discrimination is un-American

I urge you to change your biased and prejudiced point of view and
create a policy that offers equanimity to all partners of all victims
affected by the horrible attack on New York City, Washington D.C., and
the aborted attack of the third airplane that took place on 
September 11, 2001.

Sincerely, 




Individual Comment
Seattle, Washington
 
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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>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="370409">
            <text>2002-03-28</text>
          </elementText>
        </elementTextContainer>
      </element>
    </elementContainer>
  </itemType>
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    <elementSet elementSetId="1">
      <name>Dublin Core</name>
      <description>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/.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370410">
              <text>dojR002715.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
      <elementContainer>
        <element elementId="52">
          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370411">
              <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="370412">
              <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="370413">
              <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="370414">
              <text>yes</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="56">
          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370415">
              <text>born-digital</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="57">
          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370416">
              <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="370417">
              <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>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370418">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="370419">
              <text>2002-03-28</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
      </elementContainer>
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  </elementSetContainer>
</item>
