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. Saturday, January 12, 2002 9:25 AM Comments on Interim Final Report I am preparing this submission from the perspective of a Canadian father who lost both his daughter and his son-in-law in the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. As such, I have no elected representative to carry my message to Congress or to the upper echelons of American public administration. At the outset I must state that I have been moved and gratified by the outpouring of support received from a number of institutions in the United States and from many citizens. As my Prime Minister stated shortly after the attack, I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in its fight to rid the world of this pestilence called terrorism. That said, I find it ironic that the United States Government, through the administration of the September 11th Victim's Compensation Fund, has chosen to treat the families of victims in such a ungenerous and dismissive fashion. I find unacceptable aspects in both areas of the Special Master's rules of application. Economic Losses First, it has been argued that the awards work against those of higher incomes, limiting economic losses of those in the 98th percentile and above. This is a valid point, for I would suggest that those earning above $225,000 per year were substantially more than 2% of the workers of the World Trade Center. However, the projection of economic losses is also stacked against workers at the lower end. The idea of basing earnings on the average of the years 1998 to 2000, and then deducting insurance payments based on salaries earned in 2001 seems particularly unfair. In my daughter's case, she began her current employment in 1999. Thus, if one included the few thousand dollars she earned as the "Token Canadian" working for four months at the United Nations in 1998, her projected lifetime earnings are in the $400,000 range. In fact, since she was hired to work at the World Trade Center, she has received several promotions and had seen here salary increase by over 15% per year. Thus, the $400,000 of projected earnings over the next 30-plus years in closer to what she would have earned over the next four or five years. I would submit that such progress by young professional workers in the World Trade Center is more the rule that the exception. Non-Economic Losses I must take issue, as well, with the non-economic losses. In my personal case, my loss has been totally non-economic, for I have lost an irreplaceable child. To suggest that this is worth $250,000 is an insult. Again from a Canadian perspective, the excesses of the American economic system sometimes shock us. Both the salaries and legal awards often seem to be totally unrealistic. Yet, this is the "American Way." This is the system that has served your country well, and which has helped make it the world's leading economic power. It seems inconceivable that following the most nefarious attack on your civilian population in your entire history, the Government of the United States of America should chose to abandon this system, and to treat the victims of this attack so callously. In conclusion, I seek closure to this terrible episode in my life. I wish to avoid a decade long court battle which I might not live long enough to see to its conclusion. I would be willing to accept a reasonable offer that does this. Yet, from what I have seen to date, it would appear that I am left little choice to if I wish to receive fair compensation for my loss. The offsets of insurance would appear to reduce my projected compensation to zero. I thus this find the comments by Mr. Feinberg, which suggests that victim's families will receive from $500,000 to $3,000,000 (and an average of $1,600,000) to be appalling and blatantly misleading. Such statements would seem to me a deliberate campaign of misinformation aimed at providing an atmosphere to allow the United States Government to low-ball the families of victims, while capitalizing on the sympathy that the American population wishes to direct towards them. From the country, which has led the world in its compassion and generosity for so many years, I would have expected better. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-12 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 dojN001535.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. 2002-01-12