dojN001985.xml

dojN001985.xml

born-digital

email

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2002-01-18

Friday, January 18, 2002 11:49 AM
Victims Compensation

Attached please find a comment to the Interim Rule.

Thank you!

Attachment 1:


January 18, 2001

Kenneth Feinberg, Esq.
Special Master


Dear Mr. Feinberg:

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, you were asked whether you would make the decision to enter the compensation fund if you lost a loved one in the September 11th terrorist attacks. You hesitated before you answered. Your first response was that you could not, try as you might, place yourself in that position. Your final answer was that you guess - with a pause guess you would choose to enter the fund. This was not exactly a ringing endorsement of the fund. We understand your hesitation.

As difficult as it may be for you to place yourself in our position, it is your responsibility and your obligation to do so. Place yourself in the position of the newly single parent who must wake up each morning and deal first with the immense and sick sense of dread and loss, the realization that another day without your loved one must be endured, and in many cases the knowledge that you will never even have the solace of burying their your loved one. Then consider the challenge each widow or widower must face as they meet each demand placed before them that day, taking care of children who are experiencing a tremendous loss, and all of the daily responsibilities that accompany the raising of children, jobs, bills to pay, and more. These challenges often must be faced after sleepless nights and horrible nightmares. Think of the parents who have faced the most difficult challenge any parent can, the loss of a child. Their lives will never be the same. Consider the person who was about to get married to one who perished and whose dreams and future were dashed to the ground in seconds. Consider those who are domestic partners, who suffer the profound loss of a loved one but are also not contemplated in your program .

Now try to imagine how these individuals will answer the question posed to you, an attorney, when they do not have your experience or skill and when they are suffering in a most extraordinary and unrelenting way. Their private grief is coupled with an enormous burden of public grief. There is no relief. There is only paperwork, persistent publicity, and now the burden of appearing ungrateful, a burden which has been imposed by a government that now appears to be more concerned about protecting airlines and insurance companies than holding these bodies legally responsible for their failure to provide secure travel and freedom from this kind of tragedy.

I lost my brother, a firefighter, in this terrible attack. I am not in the position of those described above, although my parents and my brothers fiancée are in those positions. My grief is deep and I suffer daily as I experience my own pain and observe that of my parents, my brothers fiancée, my siblings, our spouses and children. We siblings will get nothing for our pain under your plan and I realize that it would be impossible to compensate everyone. I also know that is our responsibility as family and as a nation, and especially your responsibility as the special master, to protect and care for these very vulnerable victims.

You cannot abandon your responsibility by saying that you will never be able to put yourselves in the victims shoes. As special master, you have a choice to make. You can truly try to compensate the victims or you can hide behind rhetoric suggesting that because it is impossible for you to stand in our shoes and because no amount of money will ever compensate for the loss of our loved ones, that somehow you are relieved of your obligation to accomplish this task. You have made the decision to offer victims an insulting amount for non-economic pain and suffering. You have permitted the public to be misled into thinking that all families were going to receive a substantial amount of money when this is simply not true. You have created an untenable situation for victims who must now become active, in a time of great distress and grief, to fight for something that is clearly deserved freedom from financial worries which are a direct result of the failure of this country to adequately protect its citizens. This rule amounts to an abandonment of your duty to provide the fair and just compensation that Congress intended to offer these victims.

As special master, you can make a choice not to try to reduce the cost of a fund that was originally supposed to compensate 6000 victims.

As special master, you can choose to consider the true cost of raising a child beyond age 18 rather than reducing the award by consumption factors. Realistically, most parents are financially responsible for their children through age 21.

As special master, you can choose to tell the American public and these families, by awarding appropriate economic and non-economic compensation, that these firefighters, police officers and other rescue workers are indeed national heroes and that their families will be taken care of by the government. Otherwise, you will leave a legacy of disenchantment with public service for who would encourage their child to choose such a career when these heroes lives are so devalued?

I am an attorney and one thing is clear to me. No one in our profession was prepared to deal with the extraordinary and catastrophic results of this type of terrorist attack and its aftermath. That is why the American Bar Association put a moratorium on lawsuits. Highly experience lawyers were not sure how to proceed in this situation. How, then, is the average lay person, without the benefit of legal expertise, supposed to make a decision in this situation? As you clearly displayed by your reaction to Mr. Blitzers question, it is a terribly difficult position for a victim.

Your job is a difficult one and I do believe you want to do the right thing. You still have the opportunity to do so. Please do not abandon these victims! Make this fund a worthwhile reflection of the American spirit of generosity that was displayed by so many of our citizens.


Thank you for the opportunity to be heard.

Sincerely,

Individual Comment
Amherst, NY

2002-01-18