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. Wednesday, November 07, 2001 11:18 PM Comments on victims compensation fund My wife died in the attack on the Pentagon. I have two sons, aged 11 and 7. I strongly disagree that any awards from the victims compensation fund should be reduced by any other compensation received. My wife and I prepared for the future by paying life insurance premiums, contributing to her pension plan, and other steps we took. We made sacrifices so that the one of us who survived, or our sons, if both of us were deceased, would be provided for. It is not equitable that the government should reduce any award my family might receive from the victims compensation fund by the amount of compensation we receive from our prior planning, sacrifice and preparedness. To take this amount away from any award my family would receive would be like stealing from us, like punishing us for having prepared for the future. It would also cheapen and minimize the loss we have experienced, as though accountants were more concerned with the costs than with taking care of people. It would make it as though we had never gone through the effort to budget and to do without to make the premium and contribution payments, or worse, that we done it for nothing. Because we planned ahead, my family is not eligible for most of the financial assistance aid currently available. This is because much of it is need based. I think this is right. I have not even considered trying to apply for funds to cover expenses that I am able to meet with the proceeds from insurance, pension and my regular pay. There are many people in dire straits who need that money. I would not think of taking it from them. So, I am not referring to compensation received from the American Red Cross and other aid agencies. (For the record, I do not think that victims' compensation should be reduced by amounts received from those sources, either.) If an award to my family is to be reduced by the amounts we've received from insurance, retirement, pension, etc., I will probably elect to sue--most likely successfully--American Airlines, Dulles International Airport, the security services involved, and possibly other entities, including governments. If I am forced into this course, I will be required to seek a much larger award than that for which I would be willing to settle if I did not have to go to court. For me, the time and aggravation of going through a suit is a minimal consideration. I do not need the compensation. I can wait years if that is the case. However, I would much rather accept an award from the victims compensation fund--probably much smaller than what I might expect to receive from litigation--if it meant simplifying the process. I think it would be much less costly to, and in the best interest of, the taxpayers, for the government to agree to compensate victims without regard to other compensation received. Keep it simple, be fair, get it done with. Do the right thing once instead of dealing over and over again with doing the wrong thing, or with doing only half of the right thing. The best solution for my family, and I think other victims, is to determine a consistent standard, such as loss of wages, as in our case, and set up a fair formula for pain and suffering. Determine an award in each case, give it to the victims and be done with it. Case law provides ample precedent for doing this quickly and fairly. For me, in consideration of the needs of my family, the bottom line is not the amount of the award, nor is it the time it might take for litigation. It is simply that I do not consider it right that the insurance, retirement, etc. that my wife and I worked for should now be discounted. Do not penalize those who have had the forethought and made the sacrifices necessary to be prepared for loss. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-07 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 dojW000225.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. 2001-11-07