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, January 16, 2002 4:05 PM Fund inadequacies It is my understanding that the Victim?s Compensation Fund was designed to provide victims? families with an alternative to suing the airlines, thus acting as an ?out of court? settlement. Using this as a basis, there are a number of questionable attributes of the fund. When someone settles out of court, I do not believe that his/her age, marital status or income is a factor in determining the amount to be awarded. If two people were killed in a car accident, one should not receive more money than the next simply because he/she made more money than the other. Also, a victim?s insurance policy and pension plan would never be figured into a court settlement equation. I strongly feel that every victim should be treated as equal. All of the factors that are being juggled around in order to try to come up with a ?fair? amount for each family are completely subjective and open to much debate. Under the guidelines as I understand them, the most monetarily beneficial characteristics a victim could possess include youth, money, dependent children and little or no pension/insurance funds. At first glance, it may seem logical and even ?fair? to use these criteria. However, after further reflection, one could make a case for why each of these factors should not necessarily dictate payment of more money. For example, one could argue that just because someone was younger and had many years to work, doesn?t mean should be awarded more money. Some hypothetical reasons might include that his/her spouse is also likely to be young and more able to earn a living in the future, and even, perhaps more likely to re-marry at some point. Furthermore, no matter how many family members someone may have left behind, that does not make it any easier for those who mourn. In fact, some may contend that having children, although a financial responsibility, may actually serve to ease the burden and suffering, which may otherwise had to have been tackled alone. While it is impossible to begin to grasp the incredible number of diverse situations families are in, I will share my own story as an example. I lost my father, , who worked for the of for 35 years. He and my mother had been together since the age of 12 and had been married for 35 years. 25 years old, I am the middle child of three, with my younger brother at 20 and my older brother at 26. My father, who had just turned 55 years of age had planned on retiring within months. Unfortunately, by the funds? standards, my father has more than a couple factors working against qualifying us for funds. To start, he didn?t make a lot of money, relatively speaking (around $60,000). Because of his age, he would not have worked many more years. Since he did work for for 35 years, he had a reasonably generous pension, which he had worked so hard for his whole life. According to our calculations, our family?s total payment under the rules as they stand would give us a $100,000 payment. When figures ranging in the millions are being discussed, a number so significantly lower comes as a harsh reality. I doubt anyone would disagree that this is not nearly enough to live on for any significant period of time, nor is it a reasonable or ?fair? compensation for my father?s life. With the fund set up as is, we are not given a choice. With today?s life expectancies and our culture?s lifestyle, it is accurate to say that a major part of his life was just beginning. Now, in my mother?s eyes, her life has ended as well. The fund?s foundation and guidelines are simply insulting and hurtful in so many ways and to so many people. One should never have to look up on a chart to figure out how much their loved one is ?worth,? especially when their value is listed side by side for comparison with the ?worth? of others who were lost in the same tragic, devastating manner. A set amount should be divided equally among the victims. This is not about who needs more to live on or who would have made more money in their lifetime. This is about trying to give a sense of closure and worth to all of the families. Thank you. Sincerely, Individual Comment Staten Island, NY September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-16 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 dojN001902.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. 2002-01-16