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, December 05, 2001 5:00 AM Compensation for surviving loved ones of Sept. 11 Dear Mr. Zwick: I am concerned about possible limits being placed on families of those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11. In the absence of clear regulatory guidelines, your task of determining who rightfully qualifies for financial support is made more difficult. One of the greatest challenges you face will be decisions regarding surviving partners and children of same-sex couples. I am certain you will have much pressure placed on you regarding the "moral" tone you establish by either withholding such awards or face very vocal opposition should you decide that in all fairness couples deprived of the right to marry still had relationships worthy of financial recognition. One of the miracles of those dark days after the tragedy was that people only saw heroes among the police, firefighters and office workers that lost their lives in the World Trade Center. Few cared about the difference in color of skin, religion, job or sexual orientation. We were all Americans grieving the untimely murder of our fellow Americans. As you go about this great task of disbursing the "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund," I hope you will keep that generous spirit alive and treat surviving partners of gay and lesbian couples with the same dignity and respect as those who enjoyed the priviledge of legal marriage. Nothing will replace the love these people lost, nothing will restore the hope and optimism with which they faced the future. Of course there will need to be clear standards for proving the couples lived in committed long-term relationships -- but many of them will have wills, joint deeds to property, named in durable powers of attorney, were named as beneficiaries to pension funds, etc. The relationships of these couples were denied the basic recognition available to their heterosexual peers -- but still they went on loving and building lives together. Ultimately they created families -- households of people committed to the welfare of each other. I strongly urge the Department to draft regulations that ensure compensation is available to all victims of the attack, including the committed partners and the non-biological children of gay and lesbian victims. The devastating grief and economic losses suffered by the families of gay and lesbian victims are no less than that of other families. Just as the terrorists drew no lines in choosing their victims, our country must draw no lines in compensating those who suffered the most personal of losses from these horrific attacks. Many Americans lost their lives on September 11, each of whom left behind loved ones. I urge the Department to honor these bonds by treating the families of gay and lesbian victims as you would any other. After all, we still claim to be a land of "Liberty and Justice for All." Sincerely, Individual Comment Turlock, CA ps Know that you will be in my thoughts and prayers as you work with the many thousands of surviving family members. I cannot begin to imagine the puzzles you will need to unravel and the cries for justice you will hear on a daily basis. May God's profound wisdom and compassion enlighten your powers of discernment and keep you hopeful in the face of so much loss. September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-12-05 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 dojA000680.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. 2001-12-05