dojN000951.xml

dojN000951.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2001-12-21

Friday, December 21, 2001 6:17 PM
Victim Compensation Fund


I just finished reading an article in today's Seattle Times, "Victims' families to get average of $1.6 million" and after reading the article aloud in my office my fellow employees and I are in agreement that this is way overboard.    Although I have not heard one explanation for the reasoning behind why the payments have been tailored the way they are, I suspect that the primary reason is so that 3,200 families do not sue the airlines, in effect creating another need for airline industry bailout.  However, it is upsetting to me to read that this fund, or, as the paper says Kenneth Feinberg puts it, "an unprecendented expression of compassion" on the part of the American people to the victims and their families, will pay the families of single, childless victims who died in the September 11 tragedy.  What happened on that day was certainly a tragedy that touched the world.  It created emotional problems for people all over the world and especially in the United States.  Like any other death, I for one am at a loss of words to the families who lost people in the tragedy.  However, the ACTUAL "unprecedented expression of compassion on the part of the American people" was their giving, and mine, to the United Way and the Red Cross funds so that that money could go to the families of the victims.   What bothers me most is the inequity of this fund and the way it is categorizing people that were directly affected by the disaster.  Americans in every corner of the nation are violated every day or they are met with misfortune.  I know of two women that I went to highschool with who were murdered...one beaten to death with a blunt object and another found in her bathtub strangled.  These people were murdered just the same as were the people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  On September 12 a friend of mine and her two sisters lost both of their parents in an airplane crash in the Yucatan in Mexico.  My own mother died when I was four years old and my sister six.  Social security paid my father about $100.00 per month for each of us until we were eighteen years old.  I have countless other examples of sad stories such as these.  Who compensates people like this for their loss, pain and suffering?  Who pays for the funeral costs?  They do.    We Americans exist in the land of opportunity.  Most of us are entirely capable of making important choices to plan for our futures and for the futures of those we love by obtaining life insurance, retirement funds, etc.  Some of us are lucky and we are able to get good educations and make good money in the careers of our choice.  Hopefully we are able to save for the future and whatever that may bring, good or bad.  But after the life insurance check comes, that's it for most people, if they even have that.  It does not make good sense to me that this fund is going to pay the survivors of a 25-year old single worker who made $25,000 annually up to $1.17 million before deductions, nor that a widower of a 40-year-old childless Pentagon worker earning $60,000 a year would receive $640,000 before deductions.  I can understand compensating a widowed spouse with children or children that are now left without parents.  I think paying someone who was disabled in the World Trade Center is the right thing to do.  I can understand helping them to get back on their feet for however long that takes.  I can understand helping all survivors who lost their jobs to make their house payments and to make ends meet.  But no amount of money will bring these people back.  And while this event was one of the most tragic things that has happened to America in its entire history, individuals and individual families are met with equal hardship every day.  What about all of the Boeing workers who have lost their jobs as a result of this tragedy?  Is the federal goverment paying them in addition to the measly amount they are paid in unemployment benefits?  Even Japanese individuals that were placed in camps so many years ago during the Japanese conflict were only paid around $20,000 in many instances.  So, this law is not equitable at all.   I am sickened by the obvious greed that is shown by statements made by people like &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp of Long Island.  I would like to know what is so ultimately different about her situation and my father's.  Yet she has the gall to call the amount of money she will be getting from the Victim Compensation Fund a sick joke.  And &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp of &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp asks why he should be penalized for planning for his future in referring to the fact that his life insurance income will be deducted from the "award" he receives.  Getting any amount of money from the Victim Compensation Fund in addition to his life insurance is not a penalty, it is a blessing for him to receive it during a very difficult time in his life.  Both of these people need to take stock of their situations, be thankful that they are still alive, and move on like every other person who endures loss must do.  Perhaps they should spend all that energy on helping to change the world instead of being angry that the average figure of $1.6 million is not enough for them to pick up their lives and live on.    I hoped that if anything positive came out of the September 11 tragedy that at least Americans might finally realize that what they have is a whole lot more than what most other people in this entire world have.  I hoped that they might finally stop pointing fingers at everyone else and take responsibility for their own actions for once.  I also hoped that people would realize that bad things happen with no explanation, and while it is always painful to someone, we must move on.  I am angry about the way this fund will work.  I am angry that despite my wishes, through the Victim Compensation Fund I will be paying for a highly paid banker or stocktrader's family to live in addition to what I have already given to charitable organizations.    I understand the purpose of the fund, but I do not agree with the manner with which you are going about the disbursement of these funds.   
Individual Comment

Edmonds, WA    

2001-12-21