W000057
Tuesday, November 06, 2001 9:23 AM
Victims of the WTC disaster
My brother was a victim of the World Trade Center disaster. He was a
Firefighter with Ladder 25 in Manhattan and gave his life evacuating people
from the burning building. There is no doubt that this type of herosim
demonstrated by all the Firefighters, Police and Emergency workers was
impetus behind the public's ongoing charitable donations. The public has
contributed a significant amount of money to directly assist our fallen
brothers and sisters - not to help the U.S. government bail out the airline
industry and to protect its balance sheet. No one who has lost a relative
or friend in this disaster wants to get rich -- in fact, we would give all
that we had to have our loved ones returned to us. Barring that, we, the
survivors, must bear the burden of incredible grief, coupled with the
mundane aspects of settling our loved one's estates. The outpouring of
charity has assisted in shouldering that burden, yet is a separate thing
altogether from the responsibilities of our government.
There has been no larger receipient of our government's largesse than the US
Airline Industry. A $15 Billion dollar bailout of an industry already
suffering from competitive pressures and a lack of regard by the public is
certainly a boon to stockholders and the companies' CEOs. The package that
was created by our government to bail out the industry, also created a fund
for the victims to compensate us for the airlines unwillingness to provide
for basic security. Of course, as a provision of this expedited settlement,
the victims' families cannot sue the airlines. If one of us chooses to
avail ourselves of this fund, we should be able to do so -- and not have our
ultimate settlement reduced by the amounts received from Charity. Do we
reduce the benefits for welfare recipients if they go to a soup kitchen? or
use government sponsored daycare? Of course not - these are unthinkable!
They fly in the face of why people donate to charity! This sentiment is no
less true here - charity is charity, and the government is the government.
They are separate entities and should be treated as such - it is
unconcionable to treat them as equals.
One final note - if the awards to victims families are reduced by the
amounts they receive from charities, you have just given the trial lawyers
the best 10 years of their lives. The amounts spent to prop up the airlines
will be wasted, and the industry will go under from the weight of lawsuits
and judgements for the victims families. Your choice is clear - preserve
charitable donations for what they are, not for a method of balancing the
government's books.
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