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. Sunday, January 20, 2002 2:45 PM The Fund Dear Mr. Feinberg, On September 11th we were enveloped in a horrendous nightmare that we have been unable to awaken from. The unimaginable happened. Four of our own planes were used as guided missiles to topple landmark buildings and kill innocent civilians. How could this happen have happened? Four months later that question remains unanswered and haunting. Four months later we are still overwhelmed with disbelief. Many of the surviving loved ones have still not gotten out of bed. While we were struggling to deal with our own despair, unbeknownst to us there was another force at work. On September 12th while we were calling hospitals, filling out missing persons reports, running in to the city looking for our loved ones in the hopes that they were among the lucky to have survived, one hundred lobbyists were hired by the airlines. The airlines felt that they needed protection from the families of the victims. Before we, the families, could stand up on our own two feet, the airlines and the government designed a plan, not to help the victims' families or change and improve aviation security for all of America, but to protect American Airlines and United Airlines from bankruptcy. The airlines were given a "get out of jail free" pass. The legal rights of the victims were severely curtailed. The airlines had to know that they were responsible or they would not have run to congress asking to be bailed out and stabilized. Thus the Victim's Compensation Fund was born. The intent of Congress with this fund seemed to be that if they were protecting the airlines they should give some thought to the families of the people who were killed on September 11th. The thought was brief, mistakes were made. We are only now beginning to understand the ramifications of what we have been dealt. In the midst of our grief and suffering we have been forced into a political arena which we are struggling to understand. The government deadlines on many of these issues are causing further anxiety. In short, the government has said the victims' families have to give up their rights to sue in order to settle for an undetermined and undisclosed amount. When in America would that ever be an acceptable option? While the appointed Special Master of the Fund has continually advertised his 1.6 million dollar award he does not stress that it is before the deductions of life insurance, death benefits and pensions. The truth is that after those deductions are applied most people will only be entitled to the minimum award. The truth is that prior to September 11th these deductions were never applied in a wrongful death case. The truth is that the victims families DID NOT ask the government for this Settlement Fund. It was forced upon them. In a "normal" wrongful death case one would sue to recover economic and non-economic losses as well as punitive damages to insure that the negligence that caused the wrongful death never happens again. Where along the way did we, the families, lose our constitutional rights? Our lives that were once filled with normal daily routines (grocery shopping carpooling childcare etc.). are now filled with therapy, support groups, advocacy meetings, attorney and accountant meetings and media sessions. Our daily routines now include, fighting to get back remains of our loved ones in a timely and humane manner, spending the day calling our Congressmen and Senators to fight for our legal rights, spending the day doing those things necessary to fight for financial security for our families, and fighting to retain our sanity and the sanity of our children, advocating on behalf of our loved ones so that their lives would not have been lost in vain, and not giving into the sadness which is paralyzing but must be felt. We have lost so much. We do not want to feel further victimized. We do not want our children to be further scarred. The families of the victims need to be able to pick up the pieces of our lives and move on from here without anger and with our faith restored in our country. We are pleading with the powers that be ,be our voice. let at least one part of the nightmare end. Respectfully Yours , Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-20 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 dojN002129.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. 2002-01-20